Bacchus (Leonardo)

Common card · No. 372313

Bacchus, originally Saint John the Baptist, is a painting in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, France, by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci and Francesco Melzi, while in Leonardo's workshop. Sydney J. Freedberg assigns the drawing to Leonardo's second Milan period. Among the Lombard painters who have been suggested as possible authors are Cesare da Sesto, Marco d'Oggiono, Francesco Melzi, and Cesare Bernazzano. The painting shows a male figure with garlanded head and leopard skin loincloth, seated in an idyllic landscape. He points with his right hand off to his left, and with his left hand grasps his thyrsus and also points down to earth. The painting originally depicted John the Baptist. In the late 17th century, between the years 1683 and 1693, it was overpainted and altered to serve as Bacchus. The model for the John the Baptist / Bacchus / Angelo incarnato series was Salaì. Cassiano dal Pozzo remarked of the painting in its former state, which he saw at Fontainebleau in 1625...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Workshop of Leonardo da Vinci / Attributed to Francesco Melzi, Public domain