TripImprover - Get More out of Your Museum Visits!
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Museums
    • Alte Pinakothek
    • Art Institute of Chicago
    • Baltimore Museum of Art
    • Barber Institute of Fine Arts
    • Bargello
    • Barnes Foundation
    • British Museum
    • Church of Sant’Anastasia
    • Cleveland Museum of Art
    • Courtauld Institute of Art
    • Detroit Institute of Arts
    • Frans Hals Museum
    • Galleria Borghese
    • Gallerie dell'Accademia
    • Getty Museum
    • Guggenheim
    • Hermitage Museum
    • Kunsthistorisches Museum
    • Kunstmuseum Basel
    • Legion of Honor Museum
    • Louvre
    • Mauritshuis
    • Metropolitan Museum of Art
    • Musee d’Orsay
    • Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
    • Museum of Modern Art
    • National Gallery in London
    • National Gallery of Art
    • National Museum in Poznań
    • Norton Simon Museum
    • Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
    • Palace of Versailles
    • Palazzo Pitti
    • Palazzo Vecchio
    • Petit Palais
    • Philadelphia Museum of Art
    • Prado
    • Pushkin Museum
    • Ravenna Art Museum
    • Rijksmuseum
    • San Diego Museum of Art
    • Santa Maria delle Grazie
    • Städel Museum
    • Statens Museum for Kunst
    • Tate Britain
    • Tate Modern
    • Timken Museum of Art
    • Uffizi
    • Vatican Museums
    • Wallace Collection
  • Artists
    • Altdorfer
    • Anguissola
    • Berlin Painter
    • Bosch
    • Botticelli
    • Boucher
    • Bronzino
    • Bruegel the Elder
    • Cabanel
    • Caillebotte
    • Canova
    • Caravaggio
    • Carpeaux
    • Cezanne
    • Cimabue
    • David
    • Degas
    • Delacroix
    • De Maria
    • Donatello
    • El Greco
    • Fontana
    • Fra Angelico
    • Fragonard
    • Gauguin
    • Gentileschi
    • Gericault
    • Gonzalez-Torres
    • Goya
    • Hals
    • Hogarth
    • Hokusai
    • Ingres
    • Leonardo da Vinci
    • Lippi, Filippo
    • Longhi, Barbara
    • Lorrain
    • Makovsky
    • Manet
    • Massys
    • Matisse
    • Michelangelo
    • Modigliani
    • Monet
    • Panini
    • Parmigianino
    • Perugino
    • Picasso
    • Pisanello
    • Raphael
    • Rembrandt
    • Renoir
    • Reynolds
    • Rivera
    • Rodin
    • Rubens
    • Scultori
    • Seurat
    • Steen
    • Tintoretto
    • Titian
    • Toulouse-Lautrec
    • Turner
    • Uccello
    • Van der Weyden
    • Van Dyck
    • Van Eyck
    • Van Gogh
    • Van Hemessen
    • Vasari
    • Velazquez
    • Vermeer
    • Veronese
    • Vigée Le Brun
  • Locations
    • Austria >
      • Vienna
    • Denmark >
      • Copenhagen
    • England >
      • Birmingham
      • London
    • France >
      • Paris
      • Versailles
    • Germany >
      • Frankfurt
      • Munich
    • Italy >
      • Bologna
      • Florence
      • Milan
      • Ravenna
      • Rome
      • Venice
      • Verona
    • Poland >
      • Poznań
    • Russia >
      • Moscow
      • Saint Petersburg
    • Spain >
      • Madrid
    • Switzerland >
      • Basel
    • The Netherlands >
      • Amsterdam
      • Haarlem
      • The Hague
    • United States >
      • Baltimore
      • Boston
      • Chicago
      • Cleveland
      • Detroit
      • Los Angeles
      • New York
      • Pasadena
      • Philadelphia
      • San Diego
      • San Francisco
      • Washington, DC
  • Books
  • About Us
    • Contact
    • Friends and Resources

Bacchus by Michelangelo

3/4/2020

3 Comments

 
Bacchus by Michelangelo in the Bargello Museum
Where? Room 3 on the ground floor of the Bargello Museum
When? 1496-1497
Commissioned by? Raffaele Riario, a cardinal and art collector.

​What do you see? A life-like statue of the Roman god Bacchus. He is naked and standing with a large cup of wine in his right hand. He has curly hair made up of grapes and a wreath of ivy leaves in his hair. The effects of drinking the wine are visible in the expression of his face and his unstable pose. Bacchus seems to be looking at the cup, but his eyes are rolling. His unstable pose can be seen best from the right side as illustrated in the drawing of Maarten van Heemskerck of this statue in the garden of its owner Jacopo Galli.

Bacchus is leaning somewhat backward with his shoulders pulled back and his belly pointing forward. Interestingly, when we look from the left side, the body seems to be quite balanced. So, when walking around this statue, he sometimes seems to be out of balance and from other angles he seems quite stable.

In his left hand, Bacchus is holding a large bunch of grapes and a piece of animal skin that touches the rock-like base. You can see the face of the animal from the back of the statue and some have suggested that this is a wolf, though there are several other opinions on what animal it is. Behind his left leg is a tree trunk for the stability of the sculpture.

​Next to Bacchus is a young satyr, which is a male figure with a permanent erection and with the ears, horns, legs, and tail of a goat. The satyr is smiling an eating from the grapes.
Bacchus in Garden of Jacopo Galli's House by Maarten van Heemskerck
Bacchus in Garden of Jacopo Galli's House by Van Heemskerck
Backstory: Michelangelo started to work on this painting in July 1596 when he was 21 years old. Cardinal Raffaele Riario commissioned the statue. He had earlier bought a statue from Michelangelo, called Sleeping Cupid. But after he bought it, he discovered that the statue was not an antique one as was told to him, but rather a statue created by Michelangelo (the statue is now lost). ​​Nevertheless, Riario’s interest in Michelangelo’s talents was triggered, and he commissioned him to make a statue of Bacchus.
However, upon completion, Riario rejected the statue. While it is not clear why he rejected the statue, it was probably because it was too radical. More specifically, it could be for reasons similar to other people who have criticized the statue, which include its uncommon pose, the vulgar face, and the somewhat unmanly body of Bacchus. It is interesting in itself that a cardinal commissioned such a pagan statue.

The statue was instead acquired by the banker Jacopo Galli to put it in his garden. Together with the famous Pietà statue in St. Peter’s Basilica, created between 1498 and 1499, Bacchus is the only statue by Michelangelo that survives from his early period in Rome.
The Pieta by Michelangelo in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome
Pietà by Michelangelo
Who is Bacchus? Bacchus is the Roman god of wine, intoxication, fertility, religious ecstasy, and drama. His equivalent in Greek mythology is Dyonisus. He is the son of Zeus, and there are different stories about who his mother is, but the most popular one is that his mother was Semele who was a mortal. Bacchus is often depicted with grapes, ivy leaves, wine, and satyrs (like in this sculpture).

Bacchus has been a source of inspiration for many artists in ancient Greece and during the Renaissance. For example, 
Titian made a painting on Bacchus and Ariadne which is in the National Gallery in London. Caravaggio also created a famous painting of Bacchus which is in the Uffizi Museum in Florence.
Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian in the National Gallery in London
Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian
Bacchus by Caravaggio in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence
Bacchus by Caravaggio
Who is Michelangelo? Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564) was an architect, painter, poet, and sculptor. He was born in the Republic of Florence. Except for short periods in Venice and Bologna during his teenage years, he spent the rest of his life in Florence and Rome. In 1596, Cardinal Riario invited him to Rome where he was commissioned to make the statue of Bacchus.

​While in Rome, he also completed the Pietà statue. In 1499 he moved back to Florence. He only returned to Rome in 1505 to work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. After finishing the ceiling, he moved back to Florence for 20 years, only to return to Rome in 1534 where he would soon start his work on the fresco of The Last Judgment. 
The Last Judgment by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel
The Last Judgment by Michelangelo
The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel
The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
​Fun fact: The penis of Bacchus is missing. It seems to have been removed by a chisel rather than broken off. Also, the erection of the satyr, which was typical for him, is not present. Moreover, a hand of the statue had broken off (see the drawing of Van Heemskerck above) but was restored before 1553. It is unknown who removed some of these parts, but some people suggest that it could have been Michelangelo himself to make the statue look more like one from ancient Greece (where some of those body parts were often missing).

Michelangelo’s intention with this statue was indeed to create it in the style of the Greek antique statues, and he succeeded in this as this statue was regularly mistaken to be a statue from ancient Greece. Michelangelo wanted the statue to be in this ancient style to prove that at 21 years old he would already rival the famous ancient Greek sculptors. In that way, he could establish his reputation quickly.
​
Interested in a copy for yourself? Framed poster of statue (Amazon links).

Written by Eelco Kappe

References:
  • Freedman, Luba (2003), “Michelangelo's Reflections on Bacchus,” Artibus et Historiae, 24(47), 121-135.
  • Lieberman, Ralph (2001), “Regarding Michelangelo's ‘Bacchus’,” Artibus et Historiae, 22(43), 65-74.

3 Comments
Roman link
4/12/2018 11:16:35 am

Wow! What a write up.

I didn’t know any of this. I’ll be in Italy next month and will hopefully see Michelangelo’s Baccus.

Reply
TripImprover
4/12/2018 03:16:23 pm

That is great to hear! There is so much great art in Italy, I am sure you will have a wonderful time there!

Reply
READER
9/24/2018 04:21:40 pm

Strictly straight to the point but enough to be very informative. Thank you!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Academic Art
    Altdorfer
    Alte Pinakothek
    Amsterdam
    Anguissola
    Art Institute Of Chicago
    Baltimore
    Baltimore Museum Of Art
    Barber Institute Of Fine Arts
    Bargello
    Barnes Foundation
    Baroque
    Basel
    Berlin Painter
    Birmingham
    Bologna
    Bosch
    Boston
    Botticelli
    Boucher
    British Museum
    Bronzino
    Bruegel The Elder
    Byzantine Art
    Cabanel
    Caillebotte
    Canova
    Caravaggio
    Carpeaux
    Cezanne
    Cézanne
    Chicago
    Cimabue
    Classical Antiquity
    Cleveland
    Cleveland Museum Of Art
    Copenhagen
    Courtauld Gallery
    Cubism
    David
    Degas
    Delacroix
    De Maria
    Detroit
    Detroit Institute Of Arts
    Donatello
    El Greco
    Filippo Lippi
    Florence
    Fontana
    Fra Angelico
    Fragonard
    Frankfurt
    Frans Hals Museum
    Galleria Borghese
    Gallerie Dell'Accademia
    Gauguin
    Gentileschi
    Gericault
    Getty Museum
    Gonzalez-Torres
    Gothic
    Goya
    Grand Style
    Guggenheim
    Haarlem
    Hals
    Hermitage
    Hogarth
    Hokusai
    Impressionism
    Ingres
    International Gothic
    Kunsthistorisches Museum
    Kunstmuseum
    Legion Of Honor
    Leonardo Da Vinci
    London
    Longhi
    Lorrain
    Los Angeles
    Louvre
    Madrid
    Makovsky
    Manet
    Massys
    Matisse
    Mauritshuis
    Metropolitan Museum Of Art
    Michelangelo
    Milan
    Modern Art
    Modigliani
    Monet
    Moscow
    Munich
    Musee D'Orsay
    Museum Of Fine Arts
    Museum Of Modern Art
    National Gallery In London
    National Gallery Of Art
    National Museum In Poznan
    Neoclassicism
    New York
    Northern Renaissance
    Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek
    Palace Of Versailles
    Palazzo Pitti
    Palazzo Vecchio
    Panini
    Paris
    Parmigianino
    Perugino
    Petit Palais
    Philadelphia
    Philadelphia Museum Of Art
    Picasso
    Pinacoteca Nazionale
    Pisanello
    Post Impressionism
    Poznan
    Prado
    Pushkin Museum
    Raphael
    Ravenna
    Realism
    Rembrandt
    Renaissance
    Renoir
    Reynolds
    Rijksmuseum
    Rivera
    Rococo
    Rodin
    Romanticism
    Rome
    Rubens
    Saint Petersburg
    San Diego
    San Diego Museum Of Art
    San Francisco
    Scultori
    Seurat
    Sfumato
    Sistine Chapel
    Social Realism
    Spanish Renaissance
    Statens Museum For Kunst
    Steen
    Tate Britain
    Tate Modern
    The Hague
    Timken Museum Of Art
    Tintoretto
    Titian
    Toulouse Lautrec
    Toulouse-Lautrec
    Turner
    Uccello
    Uffizi
    Ukiyo-e
    Van Der Weyden
    Van Dyck
    Van Eyck
    Van Gogh
    Van Hemessen
    Vasari
    Vatican Museums
    Veduta
    Velázquez
    Venice
    Vermeer
    Verona
    Veronese
    Vienna
    Vigee Le Brun
    Wallace Collection
    Washington

Home

Blog

BOOKS

Contact

© COPYRIGHT 2022. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Museums
    • Alte Pinakothek
    • Art Institute of Chicago
    • Baltimore Museum of Art
    • Barber Institute of Fine Arts
    • Bargello
    • Barnes Foundation
    • British Museum
    • Church of Sant’Anastasia
    • Cleveland Museum of Art
    • Courtauld Institute of Art
    • Detroit Institute of Arts
    • Frans Hals Museum
    • Galleria Borghese
    • Gallerie dell'Accademia
    • Getty Museum
    • Guggenheim
    • Hermitage Museum
    • Kunsthistorisches Museum
    • Kunstmuseum Basel
    • Legion of Honor Museum
    • Louvre
    • Mauritshuis
    • Metropolitan Museum of Art
    • Musee d’Orsay
    • Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
    • Museum of Modern Art
    • National Gallery in London
    • National Gallery of Art
    • National Museum in Poznań
    • Norton Simon Museum
    • Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
    • Palace of Versailles
    • Palazzo Pitti
    • Palazzo Vecchio
    • Petit Palais
    • Philadelphia Museum of Art
    • Prado
    • Pushkin Museum
    • Ravenna Art Museum
    • Rijksmuseum
    • San Diego Museum of Art
    • Santa Maria delle Grazie
    • Städel Museum
    • Statens Museum for Kunst
    • Tate Britain
    • Tate Modern
    • Timken Museum of Art
    • Uffizi
    • Vatican Museums
    • Wallace Collection
  • Artists
    • Altdorfer
    • Anguissola
    • Berlin Painter
    • Bosch
    • Botticelli
    • Boucher
    • Bronzino
    • Bruegel the Elder
    • Cabanel
    • Caillebotte
    • Canova
    • Caravaggio
    • Carpeaux
    • Cezanne
    • Cimabue
    • David
    • Degas
    • Delacroix
    • De Maria
    • Donatello
    • El Greco
    • Fontana
    • Fra Angelico
    • Fragonard
    • Gauguin
    • Gentileschi
    • Gericault
    • Gonzalez-Torres
    • Goya
    • Hals
    • Hogarth
    • Hokusai
    • Ingres
    • Leonardo da Vinci
    • Lippi, Filippo
    • Longhi, Barbara
    • Lorrain
    • Makovsky
    • Manet
    • Massys
    • Matisse
    • Michelangelo
    • Modigliani
    • Monet
    • Panini
    • Parmigianino
    • Perugino
    • Picasso
    • Pisanello
    • Raphael
    • Rembrandt
    • Renoir
    • Reynolds
    • Rivera
    • Rodin
    • Rubens
    • Scultori
    • Seurat
    • Steen
    • Tintoretto
    • Titian
    • Toulouse-Lautrec
    • Turner
    • Uccello
    • Van der Weyden
    • Van Dyck
    • Van Eyck
    • Van Gogh
    • Van Hemessen
    • Vasari
    • Velazquez
    • Vermeer
    • Veronese
    • Vigée Le Brun
  • Locations
    • Austria >
      • Vienna
    • Denmark >
      • Copenhagen
    • England >
      • Birmingham
      • London
    • France >
      • Paris
      • Versailles
    • Germany >
      • Frankfurt
      • Munich
    • Italy >
      • Bologna
      • Florence
      • Milan
      • Ravenna
      • Rome
      • Venice
      • Verona
    • Poland >
      • Poznań
    • Russia >
      • Moscow
      • Saint Petersburg
    • Spain >
      • Madrid
    • Switzerland >
      • Basel
    • The Netherlands >
      • Amsterdam
      • Haarlem
      • The Hague
    • United States >
      • Baltimore
      • Boston
      • Chicago
      • Cleveland
      • Detroit
      • Los Angeles
      • New York
      • Pasadena
      • Philadelphia
      • San Diego
      • San Francisco
      • Washington, DC
  • Books
  • About Us
    • Contact
    • Friends and Resources