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

work and worries. But especially charmingly open and straightforward face of a peasant in a black hat with a cup in his hands. His smile is transmitted unusually lively and natural. It burns in the eyes, illuminates the whole face, makes its features immovable. The naked figures of Bacchus and satyr are written, like all the others, from nature, with strong village guys. Velazquez captured the representatives of the social lower classes here, giving their faces, truthfully and vividly, their faces roughened under the hot sun, full of simple-hearted fun, but at the same time marked with a stamp of a harsh life experience.

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

face – acquired purely human qualities. At the same time, the surrounding vagrants, in the guise of which he does not hide the features of the lowlands, are devoid of vulgarity. In their images, full of remorse, of a soulful scope, of gruff fun, there is something big and significant. Coloring is characterized by warm tones, the desire to convey the unity of the colorful diversity of the world. Transition (from left to right) from antiquity to reality. A conditional landscape background, not associated with the figures of the first plan.


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The Painting by Velasquez “The Triumph of Bacchus the Drunkard”