Along with Rubens and Van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens is considered one of the three best Flemish painters of the 17th century. His art is characterised by the absence of any idealization as well as by very personal interpretations of the subject matters he chooses. Between 1640 and the early 1660’s, Jordaens was the most admired painter of his native Antwerp. His works were the most sought-after among collectors and patrons in northern Europe.

In many of his works, the sublime of the subject matter is in stark contrast to the realism of the representation that often verges on comedy or even vulgarity. Our painting is a perfect example. A bucolic Bacchus cheerfully entices his obviously merry follower to further intemperance. The corpulent model in our painting appears for the first time in drawing around 1640. Jordaens uses this study in several paintings, for instance in his Diogenes Searching for an Honest Man (Gemäldegalerie, Dresden) dated ca 1642, in 1645 in the painting Paul and Barnabas in Lystra (Akademie, Vienna) and in his Christ Driving the Merchants from the Temple (Louvre, Paris).

Originally part of the famous collection of the Kings of Saxony, our painting is indeed one of the most important acquisition in recent years.