The Nurture of Bacchus

The subject of this picture is taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Bacchus, the god of wine, was the child of Jupiter and the mortal Semele. Jupiter's wife Juno brought about the death of Semele, so Jupiter took the child from her womb and sewed it into his thigh, from where it was born. Bacchus was raised by satyrs, who are shown feeding him wine from a bowl.

The painting was long thought to be an 18th century copy after Nicolas Poussin’s original in the National Gallery, London. Yet, technical analysis carried out in 2016 has firmly dated the painting to the 1620s. It seems likely that the Dulwich painting was painted in Poussin’s studio by a gifted assistant while the master was working on his own version.