Bacchanals I

Bacchanals — scenes of ecstatic worship and revelry in honor of Bacchus — were among the most enduring subjects in Western decorative painting, from Titian's great Bacchanal series for Alfonso d'Este to Poussin's classical reinterpretations and the Rococo's own lighter engagement with Dionysian excess. Amigoni's Bacchanals I, held in Auckland, is likely one half of a decorative pair, designed to hang with Bacchanals II in the same collection. As paired works, they would have balanced each other compositionally — perhaps one scene from the procession, another from the revelry at its end. The undated Auckland canvases represent Amigoni working in a mode that appealed equally to German, English, and Spanish patrons, the Bacchanal being a subject sufficiently dignified by art-historical precedent to decorate aristocratic dining rooms without moral controversy.

Amigoni's Bacchanal compositions characteristically organize the figural group diagonally across the canvas with the landscape receding into a warm golden distance. Vine garlands and fruit clusters are rendered with decorative specificity to establish the Bacchic setting. The palette is dominated by the warm ochres, roses, and creams of Amigoni's mature Rococo palette.