La bacanal de los andrios

Titian (ca. 1488-1576)


Item type:
painting
Date of creation:
1523-1526
Height:
175.0 cm  (68 7/8 in.)
Width:
193.0 cm  (76 in.)
Technique / Medium:
oil on canvas
School:
Venetian School

Additional titles

The bacchanal of the Andrians

Description

The canvas belongs to a series of paintings that Alfonos I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, commissioned from Titian. The depicted scene is set on the island of Andros (one of Bacchus’ favorite places). Gods, adults and children are united to enjoy and celebrate the effects of wine (as described by Philostratus, "Imagines" I, 25). To the same subtext is the music linked that appears at the lower part of the canvas’ foreground. The musical score offers a depiction of the canon “Chi boyt et ne reboyt il ne seet que boyre soit” (“Who drinks and does not drink again, does not know what drinking is”). The canon is attributed to Adriaen Willaert who was active at the court of Ferrara. The two women lying close to the score are holding recorders, while the group on the painting’s right side seems to dance. The ship in the background seems to refer to the arrival of Bacchus (see Philostratus, "Imagines" I, 25).

Iconclass

92L1792
bacchanal of the inhabitants of the island of Andros, with Bacchus arriving in his ship (Philostratus, Imagines I 25)

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Recorder [4039]

Musical works

Willaert, Adrian -- Chi boyt et ne reboyt il ne seet que boyre soitlegible music notation
The music is a canon and attributed to Willaert.

RIdIM images


Open access image provided by the Prado Museum.

Image URLs

image link 1
Link to image and information at the Prado Website.

Bibliographic references

Jaffé, David, ed. Titian (London: National Gallery Company, 2003) ISBN 9781857099041.

Bayer, Andrea, ed. Art and love in Renaissance Italy (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008) ISBN 978300124118.

Humfrey, Peter. Titian (London: Phaidon, 2007) ISBN 9780714897226.

Bertos, Rigas N. "A Short Note on the 'Bacchanal of the Andrians", Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 20/3 (1976) 407-410. JSTOR subscription access: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27652414.

Smith, Gertrude P. "The Canon in Titian's Bacchanal", Renaissance news 6/3-4 (1953) 52-56. RILM 1953-01147. JSTOR subscription access: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2857210.

Lowinsky, Edward E. "Music in Titian's Bacchanal of the Andrians: Origin and history of the canon per tonos", Titian: His world and his legacy, ed. by David Rosand (New York, NY, U.S.A.: Columbia University Press, 1982) 191-281. RILM 1984-06916. ISBN 9780231053006.

Bonicatti, Maurizio. "Titian and the music culture of his time", Tiziano e Venezia (Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 1980) 461-477. RILM 1984-06756.

Murutes, Harry. "Personifications of Laughter and Drunken Sleep in Titian's 'Andrians'", The Burlington Magazine 115/845 (1973) 518-519, 521-522, 525. JSTOR subscription access: http://www.jstor.org/stable/877408.

RIdIM record id

4986