Giulio Romano (Giulio Pippi), The Birth of Bacchus - 1530s by Atelier Liesjes

Bacchus is in Roman religion the god of wine, and of intoxication and intoxication. He is the son of Jupiter and Semele, the daughter of Kadmos: when his mother was pregnant with him, she was killed by Jupiter's lightning. The unborn child was then sewn into Jupiter's thigh, and came into the world three months later.

Among the Greeks he is mainly known as Dionysos, although the name Bakchos was also used occasionally by the Greeks. His Etruscan counterpart is Fufluns. With the Romans Bacchus was identified with the Italian god Liber.

On a canvas filled with half-naked, winding bodies, the story of Bacchus' birth unfolds in a typically wry Mannerist remark about the dangers of passion. When he discovered that the supreme god Jupiter had fertilized the young mortal Semele, his wife Juno came up with a plan to end their love affair. Here, as Semele gives birth to Bacchus, who is captured by nymphs while she herself is consumed by flames. From the top of the clouds, Juno looks anxiously at her lightning-bearing husband.

Giulio Romano and his studio originally painted this scene as part of an erotic series of mythological love stories.

Giulio Romano (Rome, ca. 1499 - Mantua, November 1, 1546) was an architect and painter from the school of Raphael.