Existing comment:
Jusepe de Ribera,
The Drunken Silenus, 1628,
In Greek mythology, Silenus was the son of Pan, guardian of the young Bacchus and steady companion in his entourage. In Renaissance art he is usually depicted as an older human figure inebriated and mocked by satyrs, and thus a comical emblem of what happens when man surrenders reason to the senses. In René Boyvin's earlier interpretation of a similar subject, hanging on this wall, Bacchus is an idealized figure, impaired but imposing. A half-century later, with a naturalism as accurate as it is funny, Ribera presents Silenus as a sloppy drunk, plied by satyrs and ridiculed even by a donkey. |