Bacchus
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) (1571 to 1610) · about 1598
A young man with vine leaves in his hair reclines on a couch, wrapped in a white sheet, and offers you a shallow glass of red wine with a slightly unsteady hand. In front of him a basket of fruit is beginning to rot: the apple is bruised, the pomegranate has split, the grapes are going soft. His cheeks are flushed and his eyes heavy. This is Bacchus, the ancient god of wine, but Caravaggio has painted him as a Roman boy from the street, with dirty fingernails and a farmer's tan that stops at the collar. The picture was made around 1598, when the artist was in the household of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte.
Caravaggio worked directly from the model with no preparatory drawings, and you can feel it. The light comes hard from the upper left, the shadows are deep, and every surface is described with the same attention, whether flesh, glass or fruit. Look at the carafe on the left: in the reflection on the wine, restorers found a tiny portrait of the painter himself at his easel. The ripples in the glass Bacchus holds show that he has just lifted it. The rotting fruit is both a virtuoso still life and a reminder that pleasure does not last.
The canvas was sent to Florence as a gift from Cardinal del Monte to the Medici, then vanished into the storerooms. It was rediscovered in 1913 covered in dirt and attributed to Caravaggio by the great scholar Roberto Longhi. Today it hangs with other Florentine still lifes that show how much the picture taught. Caravaggio's later work would grow darker and more violent, but here he is playful and daring at once. A memorable detail is the black bow that ties the sheet, painted with a single decisive stroke.
Did You Know? Look closely at the wine carafe: a tiny reflection of Caravaggio himself at his easel is hidden in the glass.
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