Artwork Page for Ceres and Bacchus

Details / Information for Ceres and Bacchus

Ceres and Bacchus

1600s

copy after Bartholomaeus Spranger

(Flemish, 1546–1611)
Culture
Flanders
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Framed: 197.2 x 133.7 x 9.5 cm (77 5/8 x 52 5/8 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 163.5 x 100 cm (64 3/8 x 39 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Holden Collection 1916.805
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

This painting is a copy of a print by Jan Harmensz Muller (Dutch, 1571–1628), originally based on a painting by Spranger. Spranger often used the iconography of Ceres and Bacchus, two important agricultural deities. Muller's print has the Latin inscription Sine Cerere et Bacchio friget Venus, which translates to "without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus grows cold." The motto indicates that Love, represented by Venus, is impossible without the nourishment of food and drink, as the deities of grain and wine walk hand in hand.
A vertically oriented oil painting depicts Bacchus and Ceres with light skin tones. On our left, the muscular Bacchus is nude save for a white cloth draped over his shoulder and hips, holding grapes. To our right, Ceres wears a reddish bodice and orange-yellow skirt, holding fruit in her right hand and a curved sickle in her left. Dark, muted tones fill the background, with areas of visible paint loss across the composition.

Ceres and Bacchus

1600s

Bartholomaeus Spranger

(Flemish, 1546–1611)
Flanders

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