Bacchus

Reclining against a table with a wine glass raised in his hand, this young Bacchus is the Roman god of wine as painted by Caravaggio around 1596. Vine leaves and ripe grapes crown his dark hair, and a loose white robe slips from his shoulder. Rather than picking some flawless, otherworldly figure, Caravaggio used a real young man from his Roman circle as the model, which gives the god flushed cheeks, a slightly weary gaze, and the look of someone who might have already sampled the goods.

The real surprise sits in the bowl of fruit near his elbow. Some of the apples and figs are bruised, split, or beginning to rot, and this was a deliberate choice. Caravaggio liked to place beauty and decay next to each other, a gentle nudge that good times and youth eventually fade. His famous handling of light and dark, known as chiaroscuro, pulls the figure forward out of the shadows so he feels almost solid enough to reach.

Caravaggio built his reputation on painting gods and saints as flesh and blood people, complete with grime and imperfections, which scandalized plenty of viewers in his time. This Bacchus carries that rebellious streak, offering his drink with a knowing, faintly teasing air. The painting now lives in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, where that outstretched glass still seems to be waiting for someone to accept it.