A Playful Invention: Agostino Carracci’s Bacchus with Goat in the Louvre

Abstract

AN INTRIGUING DRAWING PRESERVED in the Cabinet des arts graphiques of the LouvreMuseum, executed in pen and ink, represents Bacchus holding a wine cup and accompanied by a goat (fig. 1). The drawing presents two lacunae, which appear to be the result of ink corrosion: one at the level of the god’s genitalia, and a less important one in the goat’s left leg. An etching by Count de Caylus (fig. 2) provides evidence not only that the drawing was of interest to this French antiquarian but, more critically, that it was in Paris by the first half of the eighteenth century and can be dated before 1728. As indicated by an inscription at the bottom left of the etching, Caylus attributes the drawing to Annibale Carracci. To date, this drawing has been studied only by Catherine Loisel, who alludes to it in a brief notice in her major inventory of drawings by Ludovico, Agostino, and Annibale Carracci