The Drunken Silenus (The Tazza Farnese)

Annibale Carracci
Italy
1560 – 1609

The Drunken Silenus (The Tazza Farnese)
1597-1600
engraving on paper
Place made
Rome
Medium
engraving on paper
State
B.XVIII.193.18; TIB 3906.018; Bohlin (1979) 19, only state
Dimensions
22.5 x 22.5 cm (image)
22.5 cm (diam.) (image)
Credit line
Bequest of David Murray 1908
Accession number
084G1629
Signature and date
Not signed. Not dated.
Catalogue raisonne
B.XVIII.193.18; TIB 3906.018; Bohlin 19, only state
Media category
Print
Collection area
European prints

  • WALL LABEL: A Beautiful Line: Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi, 2012

     

    Annibale Carracci was a painter and draughtsman who created one of the masterpieces of Baroque art, the decorations of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. Unlike his brother Agostino, who was a prolific printmaker, Annibale made only a handful of prints.

     

    This design was engraved on a silver plaque which functioned as a decorative plate (now in the collection of the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples). The plate was also used to make a print on paper. It depicts Silenus being offered wine by a satyr. The plate may have been commissioned by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, and may have served as a wedding present for Ranuccio Farnese and Margherita Aldobrandini in 1600.

     

    Maria Zagala, Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs


  • A beautiful line. Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 20 August 2010 – 31 October 2010