How To Read Paintings: Caravaggio’s Bacchus
A Baroque masterpiece about decadence and decay
Christopher P Jones is the author of How to Read Paintings, an introduction to some of the most fascinating artworks in art history.
Caravaggio’s painting of Bacchus contains all the revelry associated with the mythological libertine bubbling beneath its surface. It is this sense of storm-beneath-the-calm that makes it such a potent work of art.
Bacchus, the god of wine, is usually shown drunk; Caravaggio’s Bacchus is serene and self-contained. He is often seen riding a triumphal carriage drawn by tigers, leopards or goats; in Caravaggio’s version the Bacchic procession is either yet to begin or else all over with. Or perhaps this Bacchus has altogether different plans…
Caravaggio, who was born in 1571, painted this work at the age of around 24. It was commissioned by Cardinal Del Monte, an Italian diplomat who became one of Caravaggio’s early patrons.
The painting shows Bacchus as a callow youth. The boy-god is swathed in autumnal vine leaves, draping over a thicket of black hair that itself might be a bunch of black…
