Young,Sick Bacchus

Young, sick Bacchus is a self-portrait by the Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi called also Caravaggio. It's dated between 1593 and 1594, it's now in the Galleria Borghese of Rome. It represents the artist as the God of agriculture, wine and fertility.

The history behind the painting:

Bacchus was the child of Jupiter and a human girl that is tricked by Juno to ask Jupiter to see how he really was. She was a mortal girl so she was burned up. Jupiter took care of him and gave birth to him nine months later. Bacchus was tutored by Silenus a wine love so Bacchus travelled around the world teaching to people how to grow vines.

Description:

The painting has an autobiographical content because it represents a period in which Caravaggio was sick and he spent six months in a hospital. At the first moment stand out the inclination of the head and the grimace of pain. Caravaggio underlines the illness withe the pallor of the face and the bluish color of the lips that didn't hide the imperfections of the body. Very important is also the naturalistic contrast between the crow in the boy's head, symbol of eternity, and the clusters of yellow grape, symbol of death and frailty.