CARRACCI, Annibale
(b. 1560, Bologna, d. 1609, Roma)

Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne

1597-1602
Fresco
Galleria Farnese, Palazzo Farnese, Rome

The huge ceiling in the reception room of Palazzo Farnese, painted just as the seventeenth century was beginning, was part of a great cycle of decorative paintings on the theme The Loves of the Gods, which Carracci painted for Cardinal Odoardo Farnese.

Annibale Carracci transformed the reception room into a shining collection of classical pictures. In fact, the decoration was not intended to be a single scene, but imitated a collection of framed paintings surrounding the main scene. This was the Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne which fills the centre of the ceiling.




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