Silenus at the Wine Vat

The Spanish Baroque artist Ribera may have known several of the other bacchanal prints on view nearby, including those by Andrea Mantegna (1956.1010 and .1011); this earthy depiction of Dionysos’s fleshy, frequently inebriated follower closely resembles the scene within the grape-arbored roundel of Annibale Carracci’s Tazza Farnese (1989.172). Pan, with his pipes set aside, crowns Silenos with a wreath of grapevines, tendrils of which also cover his pubic area. Children have passed out from the wine fumes, and Apollo looks on derisively as a donkey seemingly lifts its head in mirth at the proceedings.