Friday 23 April 2010

Unit 7 - Project

Analysis of a sixteenth century Italian painting with a mythological theme

‘Bacchus and Ariadne’, by Titan.
Painted 1520-1523. Oil on canvas, 176.5 x 191 cm

The painting shows a procession of approximately ten people coming from the woods to the right, led by a man (Bacchus) in the centre of the painting. He is leaping from his chariot to a lady (Ariadne) on the left; she is pointing towards the sea and horizon in the background.

The main activity in the painting happens in the foreground at the viewer’s level. The boy in the centre who looks out of the painting draws in the viewer.

Despite the majority of elements being positioned to the right hand side, attention is firstly drawn to Bacchus due to his central position and also his skin tone is light and bright, his startling pose and his pink cape.

The eye than follows the revelling and drunken procession into the foreground. At the back of the procession is a man carrying a wine barrel, another on a donkey in an apparent drunken stupor being supported upright, two ladies with instruments and a man dancing, wrapped in vines and holding an animal’s leg aloft. These elements conclude that some kind of feast has taken place.

Coming into the very foreground there is a bearded man wrestling with snakes and in the centre, looking out to the viewer is a satyr dragging an animal’s head and being barked at by a dog.

Continuing on towards Ariadne, there a two cheetah’s that appear oblivious to the rowdiness behind them and the air of panic between Ariadne and Bacchus. In fact, no one seems to be startled by Bacchus’s sudden leaping (or even by the man wrestling with snakes). Beyond Ariadne, a ship is sailing away into the setting sun and above this we see an oval constellation of stars.

Direction of vision around the painting

Although the diagram is not mathematically accurately, the shape of the elliptical spiral echoes ‘The Fibonacci (Golden) Spiral’ theory and here it opens up the painting, creating a balanced rhythm.

The painting can be divided up using diagonals from corner to corner. Firstly, from top left to bottom right, there is a line created in the downward outline of the first cloud, continues through Bacchus’ body, uses the train of the lady’s blue skirt and finishes with the trailing leg of the bearded man.

The opposite diagonal is created by tone and colour. The top left consists of mostly blue tones in the sky, sea and Ariadne’s dress. Even the ground Ariadne stands on is a mix of earth colours with blue (this causes confusion as to whether they are on a cliff top, as implied by the coastline, or at the shore and almost in the water which is possible as there are shells on the ground). The rest of the painting is of earthy yellow, brown and green tones. The foliage is green with some brown autumnal shades, the people have tanned skins, the first lady has a burnt orange-brown top and the cheetahs and chariot are also shades of brown.

Both of these diagonals therefore place Bacchus at the centre of the image. Almost perfectly intersecting the diagonals and cutting the picture in half is a horizontal line created by the head level of several characters (Ariadne, first lady, bearded man, dancing man) and emphasised with Bacchus’s forearm and the arm of the lady in light blue.



Other colour flashes are found in Ariadne’s blue dress (same blue as the first procession lady) and her red scarf, and in the yellow cloth and a golden urn (bearing Titian’s name) discarded on the ground.

Another way that attention is directed to Ariadne is with horizontals found in the cheetah’s backs, horizon, chariot top, snake and vine band. A line can also be found through Ariadne’s pointed arm, Bacchus’ cape and the treetops. A strong vertical is created from the tree trunks and the first lady’s firmly placed left leg, dividing the action on the left and right. Depth in the painting comes from the use of aerial perspective; the blurred shapes and wash of blue tones of the town along the cliff top demonstrate this.



There are a wide variety of emotions being expressed; the struggles of the bearded man and the wine carrier, relaxed serenity in the ladies, excitement in the dancing man, Bacchus’ seriousness and Ariadne’s distress. The cheetah’s and satyr seem to be the only ones not caught up in the energy of the activities.

The story portrayed is based on a poem by Catallus, telling of how Ariadne is looking out to sea towards her lover, Theseus, who has abandoned her on the island and Bacchus, god of wine and intoxication, finds her and falls in love with her. This account varies from Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ version in which he finds her asleep.

The painting shows this well although it is not clear that Ariadne and Bacchus have never met before. There does appear to be recognition between them as Ariadne tells him what has happened. It also is not clear why Bacchus is pointing back towards the procession, unless Titan has done it purely to again demonstrate the contrapposto technique.

Viewers of the era would have been able to identify the story and characters involved more readily as the stories and poems, and the elements associated with such stories and certain characters, were common knowledge. For example, the character Silenus can be identified, as he was associated with riding an ass and known as being a ‘foster-father’ and ‘companion in revelry’ to Bacchus. Elements that identify Bacchus are images of wine, vines, excess and intoxication, shown in this particular painting by Silenus’ presence, the wine barrel and the man dancing with vines wrapped around him. The ‘chariot drawn by wild animals’ and women with tambourines, as shown in Ruben’s ‘Peace and War’ painting, are also icons.

This painting has a brightness and clarity that is not seen in many of Titan’s other works, such as ‘Venus and Adonis’ where the look is much softer and has a cloudiness to the atmosphere. They do share a common feature in composition though; both paintings have the story at the centre and one corner is filled with the sky containing a feature of the story.





Bibliography:

‘How to read a painting’ by Patrick De Rynck (Thames & Hudson)
‘The secret language of art’ by Sarah Carr-Gomm (Duncan Baird publishers)

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