A Bacchanalian Revel Before a Term

A Bacchanalian Revel Before a Term is an oil painting by Nicolas Poussin, dated to 1632–1633. It is now in the National Gallery, in London.

Description

The principal group consists of two nymphs and two fauns (emblem of the four seasons), dancing joyously in a ring. While thus performing their rounds, one of the former is squeezing the juice of grapes from her hand on two bacchanalian boys, who are struggling together to catch it; a third, overcome with its potent effects, lies asleep near them. In the opposite side is a term adorned with flowers, in front of which is a satyr endeavouring to embrace a nymph who in her struggles has fallen. One of her companions has seized the sylvan by the horn, and is about to inflict a blow on him with an empty golden vase, but is prevented by the prostrate female, and also by one of the dancers. A thick grove bounds the view on this side and on the other is a rocky landscape represented under the aspect of a fine evening.

Smith (1837) comments, "This chef d'œuvre of art is a highly classic and poetical exposition of the mystic rites of the sylvan deity". On the other hand, Wright (1985) considers this picture "One of Poussin's few attempts at the genuinely humorous."

Provenance

Collection of M. Randon de Boisset, 1777.
Count de Vaudreuil, 1786.
M. de Calonne, London, 1795.
Richard Walker, Esq., 1803.
Lord Kinnaird, 1813; purchased prior to the sale, by Thomas Hamlet, Esq., who, in 1826, sold it, together with the Bacchus and Ariadne, by Titian; and Christ appearing with his Cross to St. Peter, by Caracci, to the Directors of the National Gallery.

Notes

References

Bibliography

Blunt, Anthony (1966). The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin. Critical Catalogue. London: Phaidon. pp. 101–102 (no. 141).
Smith, John (1837). A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters: Nicholas Poussin, Claude Lorraine, and Jean Baptist Greuze. Vol. 8. London: Smith and Son. pp. 116–117 (no. 221). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
Wright, Christopher (1985). Poussin. Paintings. A Catalogue Raisonné. England: Harlequin Books. p. 176 (no. 79).
Wright, Christopher (2007). Poussin. Paintings. A Catalogue Raisonné. London: Chaucer Press. pp. 117–118 (no. 79).