Feast of Silenus (private collection)

This version of the Feast of Silenus, distinguished in the records as a private collection holding, represents Ricci's sustained engagement with Bacchic subjects across his career. He painted multiple Feast of Silenus canvases — at least two are documented in detail — adapting the composition to different formats and patrons while maintaining the essential Rubensian energy of the massed Bacchic group. Private collections were the primary market for such mythological subjects in the early eighteenth century, with aristocratic patrons decorating libraries, salons, and garden pavilions with scenes of Bacchic festivity that suggested sophisticated classical learning while providing visual pleasure. Ricci's private collection version, without a recorded current location, likely passed through sale at some point in the nineteenth or twentieth century before entering its present undisclosed holding. The repetition of this subject confirms its commercial viability in Ricci's era.

Like the 1706 dated Feast of Silenus, this version would organize the Bacchic group around the central figure of the lurching satyr. Variations between versions typically concern the number of attendant figures, the landscape setting's elaboration, and the handling of light within the scene. Ricci's characteristic warm, fluid brushwork brings spontaneity to what could otherwise be a formulaic repetition.