1987.17 Pietro Paolini, Bacchic Concert

Emerging out a dark, shallow space, Bacchus, the Greek god of wine, plays a pipe surrounded by a group of musicians. Crowned with grapevines, he appears not as a god but as a muscular young man: a common laborer, with sunburned neck and forearms from days working in the fields. His body, barely covered by loose drapery pooled just above his buttocks, almost seems to sway to the music. The sensuous play of shadows on Bacchus’s naked torso are indebted to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro, the dramatic lighting effects the artist pioneered in the early 17th century. The exact meaning of this painting still eludes us. In the midst of this raucous scene of inebriated music-making, the figure to the left turns her back away from the viewer to read a sonnet by the Renaissance poet Petrarch, telling of the need to overcome the dangers of love and desire.

Pietro Paolini's Bacchic Concert reveals the powerful influence of the artist Caravaggio on the 17th-century Baroque. Borrowing Caravaggio's dramatic interplay of light and dark, Paolini bathes his musicians in a golden light as they emerge from the shadowy, mysterious background. The narrative of the painting is ambiguous, hinging on the sidelong glance of the figure at right and the turned back of the figure reading at left. The text she studies is apparently a sonnet by the ancient poet Petrarch, which reinforces the aura of mystery and even erotic tension. The subject may be an entertainment at a grand wedding in 17th-century Rome, which included performances by musicians clad as the god of wine.

Dorothy Kosinski, "Bacchic Concert", in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Suzanne Kotz (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 80.

Pietro Paolini's Bacchic Concert reveals the powerful influence of Caravaggio on the seventeenth-century baroque style. A native of Lucca, Paolini had worked in Rome where he fully experienced the impact of Caravaggio's manipulation of the light and dark of chiaroscuro as well as his new emphasis on reality. Paolini's half-length figures of musicians, bathed in a golden light, emerge dramatically from a shadowy, ill-defined background. The narrative of the painting is ambiguous, hinging perhaps on the sidelong glance of the figure at the right and the turned back of the woman at the far left. The text that she studies with rapt attention is apparently a sonnet by Petrach, a detail which reinforces an aura of mystery or even erotic tension.

Pietro Paolini depicts a nocturnal concert featuring Bacchus, the Greek god of wine, surrounded by an ensemble of enigmatic musicians. Crowned with grape leaves and fruit, Bacchus appears not as a god but as a muscular young man, a common laborer whose neck and arms are sunburned. His half-nude body is oddly isolated by the drapery pooled around his hips and buttocks. This unusual truncation reinforces Paolini's quotation of the Belvedere Torso (Vatican Museums, Rome), one of the most famous fragments of classical sculpture and a reference point for artists since at least the early 16th century. The narrative of the painting is difficult to decipher. The musician at far left studies a sonnet by Petrarch, while at right a rustic trio clusters around a woman strumming a lute. In 17th-century Rome, grand weddings frequently included performances by musicians clad as the god of wine and his followers, a tradition to which Paolini may be alluding in this painting.

Paolini, Pietro (Italian, 1603-1681)

Apply to objects where number equals 1987.17