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Description: | Signed: yes Description: The Neapolitan Giordano was nicknamed 'Luca fa Presto' (Do it quick Luke) by his contemporaries because of his enormous output and versatility. He studied in Naples, Rome, Florence and Venice where he copied works by Tintoretto and Veronese whose style clearly influenced this composition. This work depicts the myth of Bacchus and Ariadne from Ovid's Ars Amatoria and is a variation of the famous interpretation of this subject by Titian painted 150 years previously. To the left of the canvas stands Ariadne, abandoned on the Mediterranean island of Naxos by the Greek hero Theseus. In her hand she still holds the ball of string that she lent to the ungrateful Theseus so he could find his way out of the labyrinth where he had gone to kill the Minotaur. Bacchus arrives on a golden chariot pulled by a tiger on whose back rides a putto with butterfly wings, surrounded by satyrs and bacchantes playing musical instruments, and followed by a drunken Silenus offering his attentions to Ariadne. Above her, a cherub crowns her with a circle of stars, a gift from Bacchus. In the foreground, two satyrs wrestle with a goat. | Subjects: | mythology (Bacchus and Ariadne) | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Giordano, Luca (Italian painter, 1634-1705, active in Italy and Spain) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8673... | Go to resource |
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