ITALIAN, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Triumphal processions of pagan gods were images that were not in short supply in the classical iconography of antiquity, the renaissance and the neo-classical period. The present marble relief, depicting the Triumphal Procession of Bacchus, is such an example, depicting the god of fertility and wine, with his cohorts in a typical state of physical abandonment. Bacchus here is depicted drunk and seated on a leopard-drawn chariot, and is accompanied by King Minos of Crete's daughter, Ariadne, and cup-bearing satyrs and musicians. The legend goes that after Theseus abandoned Ariadne on Naxos, Bacchus came to her rescue arriving on a chariot drawn by leopards and then married her.