Pamono Pietro Della Vecchia, Bacchus and Ceres, Oil on Canvas, 17th Century, Framed> Old Masters

Pietro della Vecchia (Vicenza, Italy, 1603 – Venice, Italy, 1678)
Title: Bacchus and Ceres
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: without frame 109 x 130 cm – with frame 128 x 152 x 8 cm

Expertise by Professor Egidio Martini

Pietro della Vecchia was a versatile and prolific Italian painter who worked in many genres. During his career he also worked as an art restorer, as an art expert, and he even did expert valuations of artworks. After initially studying under Alessandro Varotari (known as Padovanino, 1588-1649), he turned his attention in particular to the works of Titian (1490-1576) and Giorgione (1478-1510). These and also Carlo Saraceni (1579-1620) had an influence on him, as did the painter Bernardo Strozzi (1581-1644) later on. In the 1640s, he was one of the leading painters of religious themes in Venice. He was married to the daughter of the Caravaggist Nicolas Régnier (1590-1667).
The painting depicts the Greco-Roman deity Bacchus, god of wine-making, male fertility, festivity and insanity, and Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. In the middle of a forest clearing, the format-filling figures framed by trees show a descending diagonal while a hilly landscape section appears in the upper right. Ceres lies next to Bacchus with her breasts bare and her silky blue robe, who is about to hand her a silver, moulded wine bowl.