Object Description
The Triumph of Bacchus, a large oil painting by Ferdinand Leeke
Oil-on-canvas, German, 1918
Frame: height 175cm, width 227cm, depth 10cm
Canvas: height 148cm, width 200cm, depth 3cm
This exceptional painting, large in scale, depicts a popular and enduring scene inspired by Classical myth: The Triumph of Bacchus, showing the god in procession with Ariadne and his entourage in an idyllic Mediterranean island paradise. The German artist Ferdinand Leeke (1859-1923) is particularly known for his scenes from Richard Wagner’s operas, which were created between 1889 and 1898 and commissioned by Siegfried Wagner, the composer’s son. Although he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich his stylistic classification is somewhat difficult to define. In many he had a unique style, for example, with influences from Symbolism, Romantic, and History painting, but also far from insignificant influences from the Victorian Pre-Raphaelites, sharing with them a love of traditional European myth.
The scene chosen here, the Triumph of Bacchus, is an enduringly popular subject, well attested throughout the Western artistic tradition. From the left, procession comes to the centre with plenty of outbursts and dancing movements of joy. The God, accompanied by Ariadne whom he rescued when she was abandoned by Theseus, is carried by his party on a throne pulled by lions, crowned with ivy. The scene opens up to a beautiful view of the Mediterranean in the background, while a temple breaks through the woodland grove to the left. Leeke has succeeded in lending the composition a gentle and sweet character, submerged in a wistful and comforting level of mysticism and imagination. Signed, situated and dated lower left ‘Ferdinand Leeke / München 1918’