Bacchanal

1675 · Private collection

mythological

Lauri treated the subject of Pan and the Bacchanalia on various occasions. This signed and dated painting depicts a Bacchanal, a group of figures merrily dancing and drinking while others make a devotion of flowers to Pan, the Greek god of nature, shepherds, hunting and music. In the centre, a maenad and a satyr dance and to the right other satyrs drink and putti play music.

About the Artist

Filippo Lauri

1623 – 1694

Italian painter and draughtsman. He studied first with his father, Balthasar Lauwers (1578-1645), a Flemish landscape painter whose name was Italianized as Lauri, and then with his elder brother, Francesco Lauri (1612-37), and with his brother-in-law, Angelo Caroselli. At least until the death of Caroselli (1652) he worked as a copyist. Francesco had been a pupil of Andrea Sacchi, and Filippo, who was thus trained in a classical tradition, developed an elegant style, indebted to 17th-century Bolognese painters, particularly Domenichino and Francesco Albani. In 1654 Lauri became a member of the Accademia di S Luca, Rome, of which he later became Principe (1684-85). He painted some fresco decorations, but specialised mainly in cabinet pictures of religious or mythological subjects.

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