Based on models by Anton Van Dyck, XVII century.

Flemish or Italian school of the seventeenth century.
Following models of ANTON VAN DYCK (Antwerp, 1599 - London, 1641).
"Drunken Silenus".
Oil on canvas.
It presents restorations.
Measurements: 72 x 52 cm; 88 x 69 cm (frame).

The most faithful follower of Dionysus, Silenus, has been characterized as a decadent satyr, old and drunk, with a reddened face and a prominent belly. A branch of branches of branches falls on his crown. He is accompanied by four figures who help him stand. The flabby flesh of the Silenus contrasts with the smooth skin of the beautiful maenad who holds him with one of her arms. On his right side, a young man wrapped in a red robe watches him with a stern countenance, as if reprimanding him. Behind him, an animalized character with very dark skin sticks out his tongue, also intoxicated by the excesses of the Dionysian ritual. His tanned skin adds another note of color in a painting in which the contrasting palette contributes to the drama of the scene. A third satyr drinks wine from a ceramic jug with great avidity. On an earthy background, the warm tones of the robes predominate, in dialogue with the cold lights of the stormy atmosphere.

With respect to the original work by Anton Van Dyck (currently kept in the Gemäldegalerie Kunstsammlungen in Dresden), the version we are dealing with preserves the spirited treatment of the stroke, the broad and enveloping brushstroke, the naturalism imprinted in the expressions and the deep carnality of the bodies, the latter inherited from the teaching of Rubens. In the present painting, the author allows himself certain licenses in the substitution of the blues of the feminine mantle for sienna and amber.

It is a spirited painting, executed with extraordinary fugue, full light and large brushstrokes. The figures are squeezed together, completely filling the surface of the canvas, and the drunkenness of the obese old man is expressed in an orgy of color, in the warm flesh tones enhanced by that red cloak and that blue mantle, whose tonalities are so peculiar to Van Dyck.

This was a work of Van Dyck's youth. He had begun to collaborate in the workshop of Rubens (before his trip to Italy in 1621). In the paintings of this period we can appreciate his taste for rustic human types and for highlighting textures.

This youthful work is dated at the time when he established himself as a master in the painters' guild and began to collaborate professionally in the workshop of Rubens. In it, however, the spirit of the master is already fully alive. Mythology is the pretext for the orgy of color and sensualism.

Anton Van Dyck began his training with Van Balen, a Romanist painter, in 1609. In 1615-16 he worked with Jordaens, and between 1617 and 1620 with Rubens, who said that he was his best pupil. In 1620 he visited England for the first time, in the service of James I. In London he enjoyed greater freedom and left aside religious painting to devote himself fully to portraiture. Between 1621 and 1627 he completed his training with a trip to Italy, where he was impressed by Bolognese painting and the works of Titian, and here he achieved his mature, refined and elegant style, as well as establishing his own type of portrait, which became a model for Western painting. In 1629 he was again in London, this time working for King Charles I, who admired Titian's work and saw in Van Dyck his heir. Thus, he dismissed all his painters, having found in Van Dyck the court painter he had wanted for years. In 1640, on the death of Rubens, the painter returned to Antwerp to finish the works he had left unfinished. The following year he moved to Paris, and returned to London for health reasons, dying shortly thereafter at his home in the English capital. Anton Van Dyck is represented in major museums around the world: the Louvre, the Prado, the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, the National Gallery and the British Museum in London, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Metropolitan in New York.