Bacchus onder een pergola 1551 - 1580

Curator: What strikes me first is the sheer intricacy of the linework; it's astonishing. Editor: Indeed. We are looking at "Bacchus onder een pergola," or "Bacchus under a pergola," a work attributed to René Boyvin, created sometime between 1551 and 1580. The Rijksmuseum holds this print, made with etching and engraving. Curator: The composition feels incredibly dense, almost claustrophobic. It teems with figures and decorative elements stacked vertically. Tell me about Boyvin’s influences in creating this sense of overwhelming spectacle. Editor: During that period, the courts across Europe widely celebrated Bacchus as an embodiment of revelry, which took various forms – from stagecraft and elaborate performances to unrestrained public intoxication, even masquerades of wanton destruction, as festive, state-sanctioned social phenomena. In Boyvin's Bacchus, it's as if these events are being recontextualized and represented to convey his status, the central Bacchus even standing above his supposed, conquered opponents in this very elaborate composition. Curator: I note the positioning of Bacchus beneath the pergola creates a kind of architectural frame emphasizing his centrality, with columns and an arch rendered using subtle perspective, directing the eye toward that dominant figure. Editor: But even the choice of Bacchus isn’t without a very loaded reading that the public could be exposed to depending on socio-political leanings and interpretations during this time. Curator: A detail like the Latin inscription at the bottom of the work adds to its mystique, don't you think? Editor: Yes, inscriptions were often included with works to emphasize some important lesson or context to the events on the images displayed, serving almost like didactic narratives when printed material could only carry the illustration of the ideas presented by people and figures of high authority. Curator: Looking at Boyvin's construction and treatment of forms it would have been incredible to come across this print. Thanks for walking me through Boyvin’s landscape of spectacle. Editor: It was my pleasure; delving into this illustration always highlights how art operates as an important socio-political instrument.