Sick Bacchus

Sick Bacchus is one of Caravaggio's earliest paintings. It is preserved in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Analysis

Caravaggio was young when he realized this work, which represents the god Bacchus. Here he is depicted as a muscular and attractive young man, but with yellowish skin and discolored lips.

It could be a self-portrait of Caravaggio in the hospital, where he was hospitalized because of the wounds received by the coz of a horse. However, some critics consider that the painter was hospitalized because of malaria. Here he disguises himself as the character he is about to portray, as Rembrandt would later do. The model is sitting with the face turned to the viewer.

The work was confiscated in 1607, and Pope Paul V donated it to his nephew Scipione Borghese.

This representation of Bacchus is far removed from traditional paintings. It is a realistic painting that preludes the art of the nineteenth century. It emphasizes the mastery with which is treated the still life.

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