Jing Du Jun: Life must be full of joy, do not make the golden bottle empty to the moon. (Li Bai, "Will Enter the Wine")
In ancient Greece, every year at the time of the grape harvest, people were sacrificed to Dionysus, the god of wine, and the dionysus carnival often climaxed in an over-indulgent manner, a fascination that went far beyond the ritual purpose of paying homage to Dionysus, the god of wine. The ancient Greek Dionysian carnival was actually under the guise of the worship of Dionysus, in which people could be debauched, indulgent, and rebelled against the bondage of everyday life. Therefore, the ancient Greek worship of Dionysus was also widely spread in ancient Rome, and the ancient Roman dionysus was called bacchus.
▲ Oil painting "Young Bakus" (1598)
By the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio
It is now in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence
In the pen of the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio (1571-1610), the young dionysian Bakus, wearing a crown of vines and a white robe, leaned on a long bed for feasting and drinking, lazily exposing his arms. Holding a glass of wine filled with red wine in his left hand, he is handing it to you outside the painting, and he tilts his head to face you, inviting you with his eyes to succumb to the empty carnal desire of this cup he has offered. Bacchus, the god of wine, was still young, even mud embedded in his fingernails, and his face was rosy but muscular.
The boy dressed as Bacchus, the god of wine, may have been Caravaggio's student and lover Mario Minniti (1577-1640), who, according to art historians, met Caravaggio's requirements for a model: white skin, tenderness, but with strong, round muscles. Thus, the Dionysian boy Minnetti also appears in caravaggio's other works:
▲ Oil painting "The Boy Holding the Fruit Basket" (1593)
It is now in the Borghese Gallery in Rome
▲ Oil painting "The Boy Who Played the Piano" (1596)
Private collections
Whether it is "Dionysus Boy", "Fruit Basket Boy" or "Piano Boy", Caravaggio's boys have a lazy sexiness in them, and the props that accompany him are always those that represent the enjoyment of the senses, fruits or musical instruments. Caravaggio gives the viewer the illusion of illusion with a highly realistic portrayal of figures and still lifes, and the teenagers in each painting seem to invite you to celebrate a feast of sensory liberation in ancient Rome, a feast of freedom and even a ceremony of enlightenment.
Wine in the divine cup
▲ Oil painting "Young Bakus" (1598, partial)
This feast of sensual liberation can also be seen in the sacred glass of wine in the hands of the teenager, a goblet of this shape, typical of sixteenth-century Venetian wine glasses. Venice is a carnival place, and like the ancient Greek island of Dionysus, Andros, Venice is also the island of Dionysus' carnival feast.
The rotten fruits on Dionysus' table hint at the impermanence of life and the emptiness of material wealth. Like other painters of the Baroque era, Caravaggio favored the vanitas theme. Shaohua is fleeting, youth and happiness are short-lived, and everything will succumb to decay and death, but this is also the reason why Dionysus invites us to have fun in time - life must be full of joy, do not let the golden bottle empty to the moon.