The Triumph of Bacchus (Los Borrachos)
by Diego Velázquez, 1629
Artwork Details
Details
- Year
- 1629
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 165 cm × 225 cm (65 × 88.6 in)
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Diego Velázquez painted The Triumph of Bacchus around 1628-1629. The god of wine, pale and semi-nude, crowns a kneeling peasant with ivy while other drunken revelers look on. This mythological scene is also called "Los Borrachos" (The Drunkards) for the earthy realism of its figures.
Velázquez combined classical mythology with Spanish genre painting. Bacchus resembles a studio model rather than an idealized deity, while the peasants could have walked in from any Madrid tavern. Their weathered faces and rough hands contrast with the god's smooth skin. The man in the center grins directly at us, breaking the fourth wall.
King Philip IV purchased the painting for the royal collection. It now hangs in the Prado, one of Velázquez's earliest mythological works and a preview of his later mastery.
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About The Triumph of Bacchus (Los Borrachos)
Spanish for 'The Drunkards'. The realistic, intoxicated peasants surrounding Bacchus earned the painting this popular nickname. This oil on canvas work dates to 1629.
He's crowning a peasant with ivy, symbol of poetic and divine inspiration, while other revelers share in the wine god's gifts. Diego Velázquez painted The Triumph of Bacchus around 1628-1629.
At the Museo del Prado. Velázquez painted it before his first trip to Italy This work dates to 1629, in Madrid, Spain.
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