''The Discovery of Honey by Bacchus'' is a painting by Piero di Cosimo from 1499. It depicts the god

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 ...

and the discovery of honey, as described in the ancient Roman poem '' Fasti'' by

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

. It is in the collection of the

Worcester Art Museum The Worcester Art Museum, also known by its acronym WAM, houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and ranks among th ...

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

Background

''The Discovery of Honey by Bacchus'' was commissioned together with a companion painting, ''The Misfortunes of Silenus'', by Giovanni Vespucci in Florence. Both works represent an emerging, private demand for paintings with secular subjects. Like Piero di Cosimo's other mythological paintings, they were made for an audience well versed in the works of

and

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 ...

, inviting the viewers to demonstrate their erudition.

Subject and composition

The subject is from Book III of Ovid's '' Fasti'', which had been published in Venice in 1497. At the centre is a group of

satyr In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, :wikt:σάτυρος, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, :wikt:Σειληνός, σειληνός ), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears ...

s and bacchantes who make noises to get a swarm of bees to settle in the trunk of a hollow tree. From left and right, more companions of

join the event, including Silenus, who rides in from the right on an ass, visibly drunk and supported by satyrs and bacchantes. In the foreground to the right are Bacchus, leaning on a ''

thyrsus A thyrsus /ˈθɜːrsəs/ or thyrsos /ˈθɜːrˌsɒs/ (Ancient Greek: θύρσος) was a wand or staff of giant fennel (''Ferula communis'') covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and topped with a pine cone, artich ...

'', and

Ariadne Ariadne (; grc-gre, Ἀριάδνη; la, Ariadne) was a Cretan princess in Greek mythology. She was mostly associated with mazes and labyrinths because of her involvement in the myths of the Minotaur and Theseus. She is best known for having ...

, who points at the wreath on the god's head. To the upper left is a town and to the upper right are a steep hill and a forest.

Analysis

The art historian Erwin Panofsky interpreted the painting as a reflection of the " Epicurean evolutionism" present in the Latin writings of

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into E ...

and

Vitruvius Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled ''De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribute ...

, which had been reintroduced to

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

audiences through '' Genealogia Deorum Gentilium'' by Boccaccio. The juxtaposition of the "pastoral civilisation" to the left and the "unmitigated wildness" to the right, according to Panofsky, symbolises the emergence of civilisation, in which the discovery of honey was considered an important step, commemorated through the eating and offering of honey cakes (''liba'') at

Liberalia In ancient Roman religion, the Liberalia (March 17) was the festival of Liber Pater and his consort Libera.T.P. Wiseman, ''Remus: a Roman myth'', Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.133. The Romans celebrated Liberalia with sacrifices, processio ...

. The art historian Dennis Geronimus has written that Panofsky's evolutionist interpretation should be taken with reservations, as its moral roots lie in religion, and the juxtaposition it is based on is "largely divorced from the painting itself".

Preservation and provenance

''The Discovery of Honey by Bacchus'' is significantly better preserved than ''The Misfortunes of Silenus'', with clearer colours and fewer over-painted sections. Since 1937, it is in the collection of the

References

Notes

Sources

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Discovery of Honey by Bacchus 1490s paintings Paintings by Piero di Cosimo Paintings of Bacchus Paintings based on Fasti (poem) Bees in popular culture Insects in art Donkeys in art Silenus Paintings in the Worcester Art Museum