The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Bacchanal with a Wine Vat

1470–80

Andrea Mantegna

(Italian, 1431–1506)
Italy, 15th century
engraving
Sheet: 30 x 43.8 cm (11 13/16 x 17 1/4 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1926.260
Catalogue raisonné: Hind 4
Location: 101A Prints & Drawings

Did You Know?

Philosophers and moralists cautioned against drinking straight from the vat, because, as Bacchus's exalted pose suggests, only a god could handle such an intoxicating drink. Mere mortals usually mixed their wine with water until the 1800s.

Description

Andrea Mantegna was among the first artists in Italy to produce engravings. His scene of a bacchanalia, a wine-fueled festival of ancient Rome, is composed as if on a shallow stage, attesting to Mantegna’s interest in relief-carved Roman sarcophagi (stone coffins). Standing with his horn of plenty, Bacchus is in control of his senses. The mortals around him falter from too much drink. When Mantegna began making engravings in the 1470s, he was among the first to use the technique to reproduce drawings. Many of Mantegna’s engravings show printing imperfections, the result of a shallowly carved printing plate and ink that did not adhere evenly to the paper.
  • ?–1926
    (M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, NY, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    June 9, 1926–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Prasse, Leona. "The Engraving of Andrea Mantegna." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 43, no. 4 (April 1956): 59-62. Mentioned: p. 60 www.jstor.org
  • In Vino Veritas (In Wine, Truth). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 7, 2025-January 11, 2026).
    Consuming Passions: The Art of Food and Drink. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 26-October 9, 1983).
    Italian and German Prints of the 15th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 29, 1933-January 3, 1934).
  • {{cite web|title=Bacchanal with a Wine Vat|url=false|author=Andrea Mantegna|year=1470–80|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1926.260