Bacchus et Ariane
Tapestry of the Gobelins Royal Manufactory
Workshop of Jean Jans the Younger, active from 1668 to 1723, as director of the 1st high-warp workshop
Mark of the workshop in the lower galloon on the right
End of the 17th century
The present tapestry is part of a set of three tapestries from the Ovid’s Metamorphoses, woven by the end of the 17th century, which comprises also Diana and Endymion and Acis and Galatea
Woven in wool and silk
Origin of the design : Charles de La Fosse (1636 – 1716)
Iconography
Bacchus at Naxos discovered the sleeping Ariadne whom Theseus had abandoned; he married her and offered her a fabulous jewel: a tiara of stars which will become a constellation. Bacchus is represented with a thyrsus (a wand tipped with a pine cone), symbol of fertility; his car is drawn by two panthers (or leopards)
