Bacchanal with Silenus

Bacchanal with Silenus — Andrea Mantegna. 1481.

Medium: engraving. Dimensions: Sheet: 28.8 x 43.6 cm (11 5/16 x 17 3/16 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

This print was probably conceived by Andrea Mantegna as the right side of Bacchanal with a Wine Vat, which shows Bacchus crowned. Here, the central figure is also crowned, but unlike the wine god, he appears saturated with drink. The scene may come from the Roman poet Virgil (70–19 BCE). He described Bacchus’s teacher, Silenus, roused from a drunken sleep by two satyrs and a maenad and incited to sing so that his companions could dance. Silenus’s great wisdom was said to be generated by wine, but Renaissance artists more typically portrayed him as the embodiment of overindulgence.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.