Bacchus at the Wine Vat

The catalogue provides the following commentary: 'Bacchus, the god of wine (and fertility) whose rites were often accompanied by frenzied orgies, was a popular subject in the art of the Italian Renaissance, inspired no doubt by antique Roman prototypes. To the humanists of the Renaissance, Bacchus's passionate spirit stood in direct contrast to the rational and civilized side of man's nature, as exemplified by Apollo. In sculpture and in painting, artists such as Mantegna, Donatello, Michelangelo and Piero di Cosimo all approached the subject as a means to show the humorous effects of alcohol on man. Cranach's depiction of the subject, however, is both singular and complex. Seated at the left of the composition is Bacchus, who in classical iconography is depicted as a handsome youth. Here he appears to have been fused with Silenus, a fat, drunken, old man who was a member of Bacchus's retinue. [...] The artist must have been aware of Hans Baldung Grien's woodcut of 1520, Drunken Bacchus Surrounded by Children at a Wine Vat. [...] A further source may have been Hans Schlegel's carved relief of Bacchus Among the Children on the portal of Mansfeld Castle which Cranach had visited and included in the background of his hunt scene of 1529. Cranach's composition, however, takes the antics of the inebriated putti a stage further as they engage in fighting, imbibe wine and generally show the physical effects of drink. The artist also introduces into the scene a recumbent young female nude in the foreground and an ugly old woman who appears to enable and encourage the behavior of the children. It is unclear what the precise relevance or role of these figures is, but together they evoke the theme of the Ages of Man. [...] The present work was almost certainly intended to have a double meaning. It is an amusing image of the effects of alcohol, of course, but it also suggests a moralizing message. Cranach was cognoscent of contemporary humanist trends and fully aware of the related literature that had wide currency at the time. A Latin handbook published in 1511 for the students of Wittenburg University warned through images and text against the effects of drink and chastised those who became drunk in the service of Bacchus, advising instead a life of virtue and study. Similarly, this painting, while meant to be enjoyed as a visual rendering of the excesses of human behavior, would have also been understood by a contemporary audience as transmitting a strong warning against immorality.'

[Auct. Cat. New York 2010 B, Lot. 6]