The triumph of Bacchus

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Bacchus in triumph, mosaic from Sousse , 3rd century

The triumph of Bacchus (also Triumph of Dionysus ) is the modern name for a double artistic-mythological motif that arose during antiquity and on the one hand the triumphal return of the god Dionysus ( Bacchus ) from cultic Asia, on the other hand the solemn union of the same god with the mortal Ariadne on the subject.

myth

The Greek god Dionysus or Bakchus (or his Roman counterpart Bacchus) was considered to be the conqueror of Asia, for example in Euripides ' Bakchen , where he returns to Thebes after winning Lydia for his worship. With him the idea of ​​a peaceful invasion and civilization of the East was connected, as the god and his entourage conquered India (the end of the known world) in a real triumphal procession with the Thyrsos instead of the spear and with festival instead of battle music and there the Introduced wine and its benefits. The most detailed description of this was given by the late antique author Nonnos of Panopolis in his 25,000 hexameter epic Dionysiaka in the 5th century .

One of the mythological stories told and literarily processed about Dionysus was his encounter with the Cretan princess Ariadne. The daughter of Minos had helped the young Athenian Theseus kill the Minotaur and find his way out of the labyrinth where the monster had been; after that she fled with Theseus, but the latter had left her behind on Naxos . Naxos was also Dionysus' favorite island and there he found the plaintive Ariadne, fell in love immediately and married her; As a wedding present, Ariadne received a crown of jewels, which rose to the sky as a constellation after her death, Ariadne herself escorted Dionysus from Hades to Olympus, where she became a goddess. This legend can be found in Ovid ( Metamorphosen , 8,169–182).

Artistic implementation

Roman sarcophagus with the triumphal procession of Bacchus and Ariadne, 3rd century

The Dionysian theme was very popular during ancient times. Numerous pictures can be found on vases, mosaics or on house walls. As the god of ecstasy and mass intoxication, Dionysus, who was honored in the large-scale Dionysia and Bacchanalia , was usually portrayed surrounded by a boisterous retinue. Some sources claim that Alexander the Great also celebrated a lavish festival ( komos ) in imitation of Dionysus after his return from India (which was allegedly subdued by Dionysus) . Dionysus was supposed to play an important role in the Hellenistic cult of rulers. The victorious return home in a triumphal procession , where the people were shown exotic booty from the conquered lands, was also topical in this context in Rome with its constant wars against Persia ; the triumph itself was also a sacred act. (The word triumph is evidently derived from a cultic nickname thriambos the god Bacchus from.) A further identification of the Romans with Bacchus was made also by the spread of viticulture in their provinces. Depictions of the triumphal procession of Dionysus appeared increasingly from the Antonine period . Under the influence of the growing syncretistic beliefs, Dionysus also acquired the aspect of a redeeming deity , which united the previous world of gods in itself. On sarcophagi in particular one sees the ecstatic triumphal procession of Dionysus and the marriage of Dionysus with Ariadne as an indication of the union of the human with the divine.

Annibale Carracci : The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne , 1600, Palazzo Farnese

After the end of the Greco-Roman religions, the triumphal march of Dionysus was only taken up again during the Renaissance in the course of the reception of antiquities - starting from Italy in the Romanized name of the triumph of Bacchus . Lorenzo de Medici wrote a song Il trionfo di Bacco e Arianna , which was probably played at the Florentine Carnival in the last quarter of the 15th century. The singing celebrated the enjoyment of youth and the moment:

Quant'è bella giovinezza / che si fugge tuttavia! / Chi vuol essere lieto, sia: / di doman non c'è certezza.
("How beautiful is the youth / They flee so quickly / If you want to be left out, you should do it / What tomorrow will come is uncertain.")

Baroque art dealt intensively with the topic, which offered many possibilities for a richly dynamic representation. Bacchus, Ariadne, the entourage of satyrs and maenads and also the drunken Silenus on his donkey, as accompanying objects of the triumphal chariot, big cats as draft animals, crowns made of ivy or vine leaves, grapes, vines, thyrsos , double flutes , horns and cymbals were depicted in changing compositions , Snakes, elephants and other exotic animals, wineskins, jugs and drinking bowls etc. In addition to the Roman and Greek sources for the Dionysus saga, descriptions of the ancient Bacchanalia were used to develop the picture.

Diego Velazquez: The Triumph of Bacchus or The Drunkards , 1629

In spite of the mythological apparatus, in the long modern preoccupation with the motif ( Eugène Delacroix created a corresponding image draft in 1861 ), its ancient religious significance hardly played a role. Under the influence of Neoplatonic ideas, the focus shifted towards the triumph of divinely understood love , symbolized by the meeting of Bacchus and Ariadne and their wedding procession, but also - as clearly in Lorenzo de Medici's song - towards the joy of the celebration. Increasingly, instead of the original transcendence, earthly sensuality moved into the center of artistic interest. The secularization of the subject is taken particularly far in Diego Velázquez 's Triumph of Bacchus (tellingly also just Los Borrachos - The Drunkards ), where Bacchus sits in the middle of a retinue of coarse peasants or soldiers, one of whom is put on a vine wreath (a parody on the coronation of Ariadne) and two of the revelers look the viewer straight in the eye. In this way the picture takes on a very worldly presence. At the end of this development, the triumph of Bacchus is no longer related to something divine, but becomes a term for the exuberant drunkenness after drinking alcohol. The English writer John Evelyn described the London Frost Fair of 1683/84 with its "Gesaufe" (tippling) as a "bacchanalian triumph" (bacchanalian triumph) .

literature

  • Gregor Weber : The triumph of Bacchus - masterpieces Ferrareser painting in Dresden, 1480-1620. Umberto Allemandi, Turin 2003, ISBN 88-422-1157-5 .
  • Silke Köhn: Ariadne on Naxos. Reception and history of motifs from antiquity to 1600 . Verlag Utz, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-89675-660-5 (dissertation, FU Berlin 1996).
  • Martin Gesing: Triumph of Bacchus - Triumph idea and Bacchic representations in the Italian Renaissance in the mirror of the reception of antiquity. Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M. 1988, ISBN 3-631-40471-9
  • Nonnos of Panopolis: Works in two volumes. (including the epic Dionysiaka) Translated from the Greek and edited by Dietrich Ebener. Structure, Berlin / Weimar 1985.

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