Bacchus

c. 1598

Oil on canvas, 95 × 85 cm · Uffizi Gallery, Florence

An early Caravaggio: a young model in a white sheet posing as the wine god, offering a glass. Cardinal del Monte, the painter’s first patron, gave it to the Medici for the wedding of Cosimo II in 1608.

Rediscovered in the Uffizi storerooms in 1913 and attributed to Caravaggio by Roberto Longhi.
The fruit bowl includes a half-rotten apple among pomegranates, quinces, figs and grapes.
Look closely at the carafe: a tiny reflected face, generally read as a self-portrait, was confirmed by infrared study.
Grapes and vine leaves sit in the dark curls; the fingernails are dirty.

Dionysus (Roman Bacchus), son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, is god of wine, release and theatre.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain