Revel of Bacchus and Silenus

This Revel of Bacchus and Silenus, around 1617, by Jordaens, is an early mythological work showing the influence of Rubens's exuberant Bacchanalia. The subject of divine drunkenness allowed Jordaens to explore the fleshy, physical painting style that became his hallmark. Jordaens, who outlived both Rubens and Van Dyck to become the dominant figure in Flemish Baroque painting for the second half of the seventeenth century, was particularly celebrated for his exuberant genre subjects, especially his series on the Flemish proverb about the King of the Bean.

The intoxicated figures are rendered with Jordaens's characteristic full-bodied modeling, their ruddy flesh and abandoned poses expressing physical excess. The warm, golden palette heightens the bacchanalian atmosphere.