''The Bacchanal of the Andrians'' or ''The Andrians'' is an oil painting by

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

. It is signed "TICIANUS F. ciebat and is dated to 1523–1526.

History

The painting was made by

for the Sala dei Baccanali in the

Camerini d'alabastro The Camerini d'alabastro (''little rooms of alabaster'') are a range of rooms built over the Via Coperta in Ferrara, northern Italy, linking the Castello Estense to the Palazzo Ducale. They may have included the ''studiolo'' or little study of ...

for

Alfonso I d'Este Alfonso d'Este (21 July 1476 – 31 October 1534) was Duke of Ferrara during the time of the War of the League of Cambrai. Biography He was the son of Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Eleanor of Naples and became duke on Ercole's death in ...

, after ''

The Worship of Venus __NOTOC__ ''The Worship of Venus'' is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian artist Titian completed between 1518 and 1519, housed at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. It describes a Roman rite of worship conducted in honour of the goddes ...

'' (1518–1519) and ''

Bacchus and Ariadne ''Bacchus and Ariadne'' (1522–1523) is an oil painting by Titian. It is one of a cycle of paintings on mythological subjects produced for Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, for the Camerino d'Alabastro – a private room in his palazzo in ...

'' (1520–1523) and Titian's intervention on ''

The Feast of the Gods ''The Feast of the Gods'' (Italian: ''Il festino degli dei'') is an oil painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, with substantial additions in stages to the left and center landscape by Dosso Dossi and Titian. It is one of the ...

'' by Bellini in 1524–1525 where he retouched the landscape to match the style of the other paintings. In 1598, control of Ferrara passed to the Papal State and the

Este family The House of Este ( , , ) is a European dynasty of North Italian origin whose members ruled parts of Italy and Germany for many centuries. The original House of Este's elder branch, which is known as the House of Welf, included dukes of Bavaria ...

had to withdraw to Modena. During the transfer, cardinal and papal legate Pietro Aldobrandini appropriated many paintings, among which were ''The Bacchanal'' and ''The Worship of Venus''. Aldobrandini never exhibited the taken paintings. His theft only became known in 1629 after the paintings had come into the Ludovisi inheritance and then were sold to the Duke of Monterrey in payment of the

Principality of Piombino The Lordship of Piombino (''Signoria di Piombino''), and after 1594 the Principality of Piombino (''Principato di Piombino''), was a small state on the Italian peninsula centred on the city of Piombino and including part of the island of Elba. I ...

. They were then donated to

Philip IV of Spain Philip IV ( es, Felipe, pt, Filipe; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered f ...

in 1639. The first documentation of the paintings in Spain date to the inventories of the

Royal Alcázar of Madrid The Royal Alcázar of Madrid (Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisi ...

in 1666, 1686, and 1700.The Italian wikipedia article sources this as simply "official record" (''scheda ufficiale''). The three canvases of Titian were admired and copied as much in Italy as in Spain by artists like

Pieter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

Guido Reni Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious ...

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...

, and

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...

, and they contributed to the development of the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style. Rubens' copies of ''The Bacchanal'' are housed at the

Nationalmuseum Nationalmuseum (or National Museum of Fine Arts) is the national gallery of Sweden, located on the peninsula Blasieholmen in central Stockholm. The museum's operations stretches far beyond the borders of Blasieholmen, the nationalmuseum manag ...

in Stockholm. The Italian artist

Domenichino Domenico Zampieri (, ; October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641), known by the diminutive Domenichino (, ) after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters. Life Domenichino was born in Bologna, son of a shoem ...

famously wept upon hearing that the masterpieces had left Italy. In 1782, British painter

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...

admired ''The Bacchanal'', which inspired him to draw a parallel between Titian and the Latin poet

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

: The painting is now held at the

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Description and style

Mythology

The painting is set on the island of Andros. A sleeping nymph and a urinating boy are seen in the lower right foreground while men and women celebrate with jugs of wine. The absence of

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...

from the painting is explained by Erwin Panofsky, who suggests that the god must be on the departing ship seen in the center background. Due to the artistic liberties Titian took in painting these figures, it is difficult to identify them. The decorative programme included other major paintings celebrating

and Venus, the gods of wine and love. Like its predecessor ''

'', ''The Bacchanal of the Andrians'' was inspired by the Imagines of Philostratus.

Music

The musical score lying in the foreground, suggesting a link between music and Dionysian pleasures, is a whimsical canon in French: The song is attributed to Ferrarese court musician Adrian Willaert. Its presence in the painting hints at the connection between music theory in Ferrara and Titian's musically influenced use of color. In the painting, however, none of the instruments are being played. The only instruments portrayed are the "straight flute". Two are held by the girls in the foreground, and a third is on the ground behind them and near a glass of wine, an overturned metal cup, and a tray of libations.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacchanal Of The Andrians, The 1523 paintings Paintings by Titian in the Museo del Prado Paintings depicting Greek myths Nude art Paintings commissioned for the camerini d'alabastro Dogs in paintings by Titian Ships in art Food and drink paintings Mythological paintings by Titian