1539
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Triumph of Bacchus is a 1539 by Georg Pencz, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A small crowd of tipsy gods and humans stumbles down a hill, led by Bacchus on a donkey. Everyone holds cups, grapes, or wine jugs. These prints were tiny—meant to be held in your hand. The scene pokes fun at Roman victory parades by turning a grand tradition into a drunken party. The artist worked in Germany when prints were new, so people could finally own art at home. Look up *sfumato* to see how other artists softened edges like this.
A triumph was a civic ceremony and procession from antiquity, when military commanders were celebrated upon their return to Rome with the spoils of war. The grandeur and magnificence of such events, revived during the Renaissance, makes the diminutive size of these whimsical images of Bacchus’s triumphs even more amusing. The orderly parade depicted by Georg Pencz contrasts with the chaotic scene taking place in Johann Theodor de Bry’s engraving. Such small prints were meant to be enjoyed up close, perhaps with a magnifying glass, a socially acceptable examination of humorous or erotic…
Georg Pencz is among a group of engravers known today as the "Little Masters" for the many small prints they created, such as this one, which often required the use of a magnifying glass.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Georg Pencz (c. 1500 – 11 October 1550) was a German engraver, painter and printmaker. Pencz was probably born in Westheim near Bad Windsheim/Franconia. He travelled to Nuremberg in 1523 and joined Albrecht Dürer’s…
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