Bacchus and Ariadne
Bacchus and Ariadne (
1520-
3) is an
oil painting by
Titian. It is one of a cycle of paintings on mythological subjects produced for
Alfonso d'Este, the Duke of
Ferrara, for the Camerino d'Alabastro â€" a private room in his
palazzo in Ferrara decorated with paintings based on classical texts. In the case of
Bacchus and Ariadne, the subject matter was derived from the Roman poets
Catullus and
Ovid. The painting now hangs in the
National Gallery in
London. The other major paintings in the cycle are
The Feast of the Gods (now in the
National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC),
The Andrians and
The Worship of Venus (both now in the
Museo del Prado,
Madrid).
Ariadne has been left on the island of
Naxos, deserted by her lover
Theseus, whose ship sails away to the far left. She is discovered on the shore by the god
Bacchus, leading a procession of revellers in a chariot drawn by two
cheetahs (These were probably modelled on those in the Duke's menagerie and were
leopards in Catullus's original text). Bacchus is depicted in mid-air as he leaps out of the chariot to protect Ariadne from these beasts. In the sky above the figure of Ariadne is a crown of stars, the
constellation Ariadne that Bacchus promises for his new lover.
The composition is divided diagonally into two triangles, one of blue sky (using the expensive
lapis lazuli pigment) and still but for the two lovers caught in movement, the other a riot of movement and predominantly green/brown in colour. The follower of Bacchus who struggles with a snake was influenced by the antique sculpture of
Laocoön and his Sons which had recently been discovered in
Rome. The
King Charles spaniel that barks at the boy
satyr is a common motif in Titian's work and was probably a court pet. The gold urn inscribed with the artist's signature (
TICIANVS) may also have been familiar to the Duke as one of the antiquities in his collection.
The canvas on which
Bacchus and Ariadne is painted was rolled up twice in the first century of its existence, which had disastrous consequences for the painting. From the turn of the
19th century onwards it was frequently being restored to stop paint from flaking off, the last and most controversial restoration being that carried out at the National Gallery between 1967 and 1968. When discoloured
varnish lying directly on top of the paint surface was removed, much of the paint itself came off as well and extensive repainting was necessary. This has caused some critics to note that the expanse of blue sky on the left-hand side, one of the worst-affected areas of the painting, appears flat and pallid. It has also been argued that the removal of the varnish has left the painting tonally out of balance, since Titian is likely to have added some subtle glazes to the paint surface in order to tone down some of the more jarring colours. The National Gallery maintains that this was an unavoidable loss, because the accrued layers of later varnish had turned the painting brown and sludgy and had to be removed.
A modified version of the picture was used on the cover of a
Crash Test Dummies album. It also appeared in the 2006 film
V for Vendetta as a banned work of art.
* Bomford, David (1997).
Conservation of Paintings. London: National Gallery Company
* Jaffé, David et al. (2003).
Titian. London: National Gallery Company
