Skip to main content

Bacchus and Ariadne

Giacomo del Pò (1652 - 1726)

Bacchus and Ariadne
Paintings
Oil/canvas
Picture size 191.00 x 150.00 cm
Framesize 222.00 x 181.00 x 10.00 cm
GIACOMO DEL PÒ F. (signed bottom right)
405
Currently not in the exhibition
Italian Baroque
© Residenzgalerie Salzburg, Illustration Fotostudio Ulrich Ghezzi, Oberalm

Seated on a bank of clouds, Bacchus, youthful god of wine and ecstasy, bears heavenwards Ariadne, daughter of King Minos of Crete. Above the head of the beautiful girl, a small putto holds a circlet of stars; this is the gemmed crown which he cast into the firmament during the wedding celebrations with the king’s daughter, and which can still be seen in the night sky as the Corona Borealis. Ariadne, her upper body bared, leans with an expansive gesture towards Bacchus, who is supporting her under the arms from behind. The slightly lower perspective emphasises the upward motion of the couple.
The large-scale oval painting shows an apotheosis. Ariadne has already been borne away from the mortal world, and upon arriving in heaven, is rewarded by Jupiter with immortality.
Giacomo del Pò renders the happy ending of a myth which has been passed on in several versions. The Minotaur, Ariadne’s maternal halfbrother, was a bloodthirsty hybrid creature – half man, half bull – that demanded a human sacrifice every seven years. When the time came, the young hero Theseus defeated the monster in the labyrinth where he was imprisoned. With the help of Ariadne who, in exchange for a promise of marriage, advised him to mark his path with a woollen thread, he found his way out. When their ship left Crete and anchored at the Isle of Naxos, Theseus abandoned the sleeping Ariadne. When she awoke, and saw the ship of her beloved Theseus vanishing on the horizon, she wanted to throw herself from a cliff into the sea. Bacchus, passing, fell in love with the desperate Ariadne, rescued her and took her as his wife.

HABERSATTER Thomas: Pò Giacomo del, Bacchus and Ariadne, in: DUCKE Astrid, HABERSATTER Thomas, OEHRING Erika: Masterworks. Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg 2015, p. 20