XAVERY, Pieter
(b. 1647, Antwerpen, d. ca. 1680, Leiden)

Bacchanal

1671
Terracotta, 37 x 61 x 23 cm
Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum, The Hague

All of Xavery's known dated works were done between 1670 and 1674. Some of these works serve to ornament building in Leiden, but he really made his name as a modeller of small terracotta groups.

In the Bacchanal the central figure is Silenus, a wise but inevitably drunken old man who was considered to be responsible for the education of Bacchus. The donkey which Silenus traditionally rides has stumbled over a panther, which is also part of Bacchus's entourage. A satyr holds up the drunken Silenus.