The Painting by Velasquez “The Triumph of Bacchus the Drunkard”
The picture is written, or, at any rate, finished by Velasquez in 1629. In this picture, the creative independence of the artist is revealed. His idea is bold and unusual. The painting written on the mythological plot is completely unlike any of Rubens’s works with their stormy, sensual elements, or the bacchanalia of Nicolas Poussin fanned by light poetry.
Velazquez depicts against the backdrop of the mountain landscape the spirits of Spanish vagrants in the company of the ancient god Bacchus. The God of wine and fun is depicted here as a friend and helper of the poor. Bacchus crowns the wreath of a soldier who has risen to his knees, who probably deserved such a reward for such a drinking predilection. Semi-nude, like his companion satyr, God sits on a barrel of wine with his legs crossed. One of the participants of the feast brings the bagpipes to their lips to commemorate this joking and solemn moment. But even hop can not drive out of their minds the thought of hard
But this is not just a drunken feast: the picture has a feeling of a Bacchic element. The artist is not interested in the mythological side of speculation, but the atmosphere of general elevation of images that appears due to the introduction of mythological characters, as if becoming a part of the forces of nature. The artist finds such forms of characteristics that do not share “sublime” and “base”. In his depiction, Bacchus – a dense youth, with a peaceful, simple-hearted