- Gallery Text
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In this mythological scene, Francesco Fracanzano depicts a drunken Silenus, the chief of the satyrs and tutor to the wine god Dionysus. Instead of painting him as an elderly man, as was customary, Fracanzano here portrays him in his youth. In doing so, he stresses Silenus’s incapacitated state, his stretched skin, rosy cheeks, and oversized legs evoking the body of the infant Dionysus, who is seated at his feet on the left. Fracanzano trained in the Neapolitan studio of Jusepe de Ribera, where he adopted his master’s dramatic use of color and chiaroscuro — the strong contrast between light and dark tones — for emotional effect. His over-scaled figures and use of color echo the work of other artists of the period, including Simon Vouet, Artemesia Gentileschi, and Francesco Guarino.
- Identification and Creation
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- Object Number
- 1932.70
- People
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Francesco Fracanzano, Italian (1612 - 1656)
- Title
- The Drunken Silenus
- Classification
- Paintings
- Work Type
- painting
- Date
- 1640s
- Places
- Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Apulia
- Culture
- Italian
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/229136
- Location
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Level 2, Room 2210, West Arcade
View this object's location on our interactive map - Physical Descriptions
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- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- sight: 225.4 x 178.8 cm (88 3/4 x 70 3/8 in.)
framed: 267 x 219.6 x 11.8 cm (105 1/8 x 86 7/16 x 4 5/8 in.)
- Provenance
- Albert Keep Isham (1894-1931) bequest; to Ralph Isham (1865-1937), Santa Barbara, California, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1932.
- Acquisition and Rights
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- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Ralph Isham
- Accession Year
- 1932
- Object Number
- 1932.70
- Division
- European and American Art
- Contact
- am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Publication History
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Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 72
Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 52, color plate; pp. 107, 345, repr. b/w cat. no. 727
- Exhibition History
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32Q: 2210 West Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050
- Subjects and Contexts
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Google Art Project
- Related Articles
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This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
