The painting was commissioned by Alfonso I to embellish his ‘Camerino d’Alabastro’, a building arm along via Coperta, commissioned by Borso d’Este to connect the Palazzo di Corte with the Castello Estense and raised in 1507 by Alfonso’s intention under the direction of Biagio Rossetti. It was a sumptuous flat whose rooms housed the Duke’s art collections at least until 1598 when, following the Devolution of Ferrara to the Papal State, Cardinal Aldobrandini entered the city and ordered the immediate dispossession of the ‘Camerino d’Alabastro’, the works of art were taken away and transferred to Rome to the prelate’s personal collections.
In the paintings in Alfonso’s studiolo, the mythological theme of Pagan Love was developed. Among the works in the Camerino are two paintings by Titian: ‘Offering to Venus’ and ‘The Andrii’, both housed in the Prado Museum in Madrid, and one by Bellini, ‘The Feast of the Gods’, exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
The painting recounts the myth of Bacchus and Ariadne and is characterised by the bright colours and strong dynamism of the composition. The protagonist, Bacchus, is at the centre of the composition depicted in the moment when he impetuously dismounts from the chariot drawn by two elegant cheetahs because he has seen the beautiful Ariadne abandoned on the beach of Naxos. The god’s pink mantle forms a volute silhouetted against the blue sky, while the rapid movement has caused numerous pleats in the drape accentuated by the powerful chiaroscuro.
The princess is depicted with her back turned to the sea as she still waves an arm towards Theseus’ ship that has set sail without waiting for her, but turns her surprised gaze towards the figure that comes towards her. Bacchus falls in love with Ariadne at first sight; their gazes meet on the left of the composition and high in the sky a bright constellation is visible, revealing the young woman’s future; in fact, the diadem that Bacchus offered her as a wedding gift will turn into a constellation when Ariadne dies.
In contrast to the blue sky and the few elements present on the left side of the painting, on the right a large procession of satyrs, priestesses and bacchae moves festively and loudly. In the foreground is painted a male figure with a frowning gaze, while his body is wrapped in snakes (probably a reference to the sculpture of the ‘Laocoon’ discovered in Rome at the beginning of the 16th century) while, from the back of the procession through the vegetation advances, asleep on the back of a donkey, Silenus.
In the foreground on the left, below the figure of Ariadne, on a light-coloured sheet is a metal cup bearing the painter’s signature ‘TICIANVS F’. Archive documents have revealed that initially the painter in charge of the execution was Raphael, but the artist’s death made the choice fall to Titian who, although busy with other works, completed the painting in Venice.
