Bas-reliëf met triomftocht van Bacchus 1727

Matthijs Pool created this tiny etching, "Bas-relief with the Triumph of Bacchus," sometime around the turn of the 18th century. Pool worked during a time when the Dutch Republic was a major center for trade and art, but also a period of evolving social norms and values. This print depicts Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, fertility, and theatre, in his moment of glory. Pool’s Bacchus is fleshy and androgynous, surrounded by cherubic figures, one straddling a donkey, referencing classical imagery and mythology. In the 18th century, such depictions were not just aesthetic; they were often entangled with complex ideas about pleasure, excess, and social order. Think about the role of "bacchanals" in art and literature—often serving as a space to explore themes of freedom, desire, and the blurring of social boundaries. Pool taps into this tradition, offering a vision of unrestrained revelry that might have resonated with the evolving attitudes toward personal expression and social decorum of his time.