Set of six prints with bacchanal scenes. The courtship

PIERRE BRÉBIETTE (1598–ca. 1642) (engraving);

FRANÇOIS LANGLOIS (1588-1647) (editor);

Rome, ca. 1617-1625.

Etching and burin on laid paper.

Variable footprints.

Good condition.

Price for the set (6 prints).

The iconography surrounding the cult of the god Bacchus borrowed many of the elements from Diana’s universe: the wild landscapes, the nymphs and the satyrs, but added a mysterious, festive and orgiastic character, foreign to the character of that virginal goddess.

Looked at from a Christian perspective, these pagan rites celebrating drunkenness and fertility offered all the characteristics of demonic worship: the secret meetings of dissolute women who worshiped horned gods became the very image of the witches’ assembly: the Sabbath. .

The dissolute and untamed character of the bacchanals led the Roman Senate to prohibit them in 186 BC. However, these mysterious rites survived in various forms.