Oil on canvas

Measurements: 54.5 × 78 cm

The ancient stout god of wine-making and drunkenness, predecessor to Bacchus, whose guardian he was, is in the left background celebrated by satyrs and nymphs with cymbals, while, in the main scene, three reclining maidens meet a satyr, perhaps Pan, with an amphora of wine: a cupid on the left perched on a statue alludes to the possible roughness of the scene.

Recently published, the work has been approximated to the similar Arcadian compositional structure of Diziani’s painting with Hercules, Dejanira and the centaur Nessus in the Napoleon Zecchini collection. Bibliography: Anna Paola Zugni – Tauro, Gaspare Diziani, Alfieri edizioni D’arte, 1971.

Bibliography and exposition: Enrico Lucchese, The Century of Nicola Grassi. Painting of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in Venice, Treviso 2021, pp. 147-148