Bubblegum Bacchus

The obvious inspiration for the piece is "The Young Sick Bacchus" (Bacchino Malato), also known as the Sick Bacchus or the Self-Portrait as Bacchus, an early self-portrait by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, dated between 1593 and 1594. I`ve first seen the painting live in 2022 in the Borghese Gallery in Rome and it stuck with me. The artwork dates from Caravaggio’s first years in Rome when he moved to the Eternal City from his native Milan in the mid-1592. According to historians, the artist was ill at that period and spent six months in the hospital of Santa Maria della Consolazione. The painting probably indicates that Caravaggio’s physical ailment involved malaria, as the appearance...View all