1 Work, Artists Interpretations of Hellenic legends, Raffaello Sorbi's Bacchanal, with footnotes #189

Raffaello Sorbi (1844-1931)

Bacchanal, c. 1896

Oil on canvas

25 ½ x 44 ½ in. (65 x 113 cm.)

Private collection

Bacchanalia,  also called Dionysia, in Greco-Roman religion, any of the several festivals of Bacchus (Dionysus), the wine god. They probably originated as rites of fertility gods. Introduced into Rome from lower Italy, the Bacchanalia were at first held in secret, attended by women only, on three days of the year. Later, admission was extended to men, and celebrations took place as often as five times a month. The reputation of these festivals as orgies led in 186 bc to a decree of the Roman Senate that prohibited the Bacchanalia throughout Italy, except in certain special cases. Nevertheless, Bacchanalia long continued in the south of Italy.  More on Bacchanalia

Raffaello Sorbi was a 19th-20th century Florentine painter, specializing in narrative painting.

As a young man, he studied design in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Florence; then painting under professor Antonio Ciseri. By 18 years, he had completed his first major work. He completed commissions for patrons in America and England. In 1863, he won a contest in Rome. In Florence, he exhibited a work depicting Piccarda Donati kidnapped from the Convent of Santa Chiara, by her brother Corso. He completed a St Catherine of Siena before an angry Florentine mob after concluding peace with the Pope, by commission for signore marchese Carlo Torrigiani. His painting of Imelda de' Lambertazzi e Bonifazio Geremei (lovers from Donizetti's opera) was sold to Wilhelm Metzler of Frankfort, Germany. In 1869, the sculptor Giovanni Duprè visited his studio, and commissioned a Phidias sculpts the Minerva Statue.

After this work, Sorbi produced mainly small canvases, mostly sold through the Goupil Gallery of Paris. Many are of antique Roman or from the historical Tuscan pasty. Many of his works were acquired by English collectors. In 1870, at the Mostra of Fine Arts di Parma, he displayed La strada. Sorbi became academician at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts of Florence and resident professor and honorary associate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Urbino.

Sorbi died in Florence on December 19, 1931. More on Raffaello Sorbi

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