Bacchante
Probably 1780s
Jean-Baptiste Greuze captures the intoxicating frenzy of a follower of Bacchus in this lush portrait. The young woman’s head is thrown back, eyes rolling upward in a daze of divine madness—or perhaps just too much wine—crowned with a wreath of grape leaves. Draped in a leopard skin, the signature accessory of Dionysian cults, her flushed skin and loose white garment suggest a moment of wild, uninhibited abandon. While Greuze is famous for moralizing family dramas, here he embraces a sensuous, almost feverish energy that hints at the wilder side of mythology.
- Technique
- Oil painting
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