Annibale Carracci, 'Silenus gathering Grapes', 1597-1600
About the work
Overview
Using an animal skin, two laughing satyrs with pointed ears and short tails lift a plump, drunken man to pick the grapes that dangle above him. To the right a young satyr clambers up a vine and reaches out for another bunch. The man is Silenus, teacher and companion of Bacchus, the classical god of wine.
This irregularly shaped panel was part of a musical instrument, probably a kind of harpsichord. Other panels in our collection – Young Satyr gathering Grapes and Marsyas and Olympus – perhaps come from the same instrument, or from a pair of instruments. They were possibly commissioned by the scholar and collector Fulvio Orsini, librarian and curator to the Farnese family, Annibale Carracci’s powerful Roman patrons.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Silenus gathering Grapes
- Artist
- Annibale Carracci
- Artist dates
- 1560 - 1609
- Part of the series
- Panels for a Musical Instrument
- Date made
- 1597-1600
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 54.5 × 88.5 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Holwell Carr Bequest, 1831
- Inventory number
- NG93.1
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Michael Levey, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1986Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1986
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
About the series: Panels for a Musical Instrument

Overview
These three panels were originally part of an early keyboard instrument, or possibly a pair of instruments, and show scenes of music-making and drinking. Silenus gathering Grapes and Young Satyr gathering Grapes are probably from the inside of the lid, and would only have been seen when the instrument was open. Marsyas and Olympus may have also belonged to the lid of the keyboard or to some part of the instrument’s case.
They were painted by Annibale Carracci in the late 1590s, perhaps for Fulvio Orsini, classical scholar and librarian/curator to the powerful Farnese family in Rome. The designs for some of the figures are based on classical objects owned by the Farnese.