A Bacchanal

Giulio Carpioni's bacchanals, a combination of Titian's subject matter and Poussin's classicism, were hugely popular in the eighteenth century. Tiepolo owned several of Carpioni's paintings and his drawings were so sought after that forgeries entered the market. Orlandi described Carpioni's bacchanals as 'perfect conceptions, such as dreams the most attractive caprices and fantasies that a painter, inclined to work on a small scale, has ever conceived' (Abecedario pittorico, 1704, p. 311). While no prototype for the present work is known, many of the motifs in this painting, such as the central sculpture around which the action revolves, as well as the groups of frolicking putti, appear elsewhere in Carpioni's oeuvre. Carpioni's influence can be seen in the works of the young Tiepolo, Sebastiano Ricci, and Giuseppe Appiani.