Bacchanlia1.0266

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1796-1875, "Repose" (aka? "Reclining Bacchante in the Countryside"?), oil on canvas, 1860, reworked c. 1865/1870, Washington, National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.79.709.

From the late 1850's to the end of his life, Corot painted several pictures on the theme of the bacchanlia, "sensuous female nudes set within idyllic, fantasy landscapes." (National Gallery Highlights) Here, a nude young woman takes a break from the revelers in the distant right, among them perhaps Bacchus himself, the wine god. She, reclining on her leopard skin, hair bound in ivy vine, and holding blithely her tambourine, looks out of the painting at the viewer, perhaps inviting us to come and enjoy the bacchantic release she associates with Dionysiac revelry.