Silenus Accompanied by a Satyr and a Faun

Discussion

FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens made several images of Bacchus and his teacher, Silenus. Silenus’s incessant overindulgence in wine presented comic possibilities, as seen here, where he walks naked in a stupor with the support of two others. Some artists, including Rubens, were attracted to Silenus for his embodiment of the intuitive and sensual parts of human nature, qualities essential to creativity. Art historians have argued that Rubens’s images of Silenus are indirect self-portraits expressing the artist’s search for creative inspiration and spiritual insight while inhabiting a highly corruptible human body.

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