Artista attivo a Roma, metà XVII secolo

Oil on canvas

cm. 123x92,5. Framed

In Roman secular painting of the mid-seventeenth century, Bacchic subjects played a primary role, linked to divinity and agricultural festivities, set in wooded landscapes and characterized by the presence of nymphs, maenads, satyrs, and sileni. These themes could be adapted to a predominantly playful or decorative interpretation, but they could also lend themselves to moralizing content, in accordance with the explicit erotic and grotesque undertones naturally associated with the subject. In this painting of sumptuous pictorial quality, these latter meanings prevail, with the old and lustful satyr intent on playing the straight flute and the young nymph accompanying him, partially undressed and apparently consenting.