1604
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Ceres and Bacchus is a 1604 unspecified by Bartholomeus Spranger, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This painting shows Ceres and Bacchus floating above a dark ground. Ceres holds wheat and a torch. Bacchus carries grapes and a cup. Their bodies glow against the shadowy background. Spranger painted this in the early 1600s. It copies a print by Jan Harmensz Muller. The Latin phrase under the print says love needs food and drink to survive. Look up Bartholomaeus Spranger (Flemish, 1546–1611) next.
This painting is a copy of a print by Jan Harmensz Muller (Dutch, 1571–1628), originally based on a painting by Spranger. Spranger often used the iconography of Ceres and Bacchus, two important agricultural deities. Muller's print has the Latin inscription Sine Cerere et Bacchio friget Venus , which translates to "without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus grows cold." The motto indicates that Love, represented by Venus, is impossible without the nourishment of food and drink, as the deities of grain and wine walk hand in hand.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Bartholomeus Spranger or Bartholomaeus Spranger (21 March 1546 – 27 June 1611) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, sculptor, and designer of prints.
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