"Traslascuestas"

 I haven't upgraded the blog for some months, but now I return "to pick up the thread".

At beginning of 2013 I was commissioned a painting related with the wine for the Piérola company's winery "Traslascuestas".

 

THE SUBJECT:

After I had considered many options I decided to go ahead with the idea of 2 figures, one of whom was offering a glass of wine to the other one.

  

 

 

Another possibility was to represent Bacchus and Arianne, and so I tought I could include their history "concealing it" in the two figures' option.

                                     

 

THE LEGEND OF THE LABYRINTH:

 

Minos, king of Crete, to avenge the death of his son Androgeus, had imposed a tribute to the Athenians, that they would pay every ninth years, of 7 young men and 7 maidens as victims to the Minotaur.

When it came time to pay the tribute for the third time, the Athenians began to murmur against Aegeus, the king of Athens.

His son Theseus volunteered to go to Crete.

When he got there, Theseus was placed with his companions in the Labyrinth, which was "the palace" of the Minotaur. But Ariadne, one of the daughter of Minos, had seen him, had fallen in love with him and had given him a ball of thread, that had to help him not to get lost in the Labyrinth.

She had put the condition that, if Theseus won the Minotaur, he would marry her and would take her away from her homeland. He had promised it and he fulfilled his promise.

 

 

 

 

"Minotaur won". Picasso,1930

 

 

Once he had killed the Minotaur, Theseus sank cretan ships to prevent any attempt to chase him, and at night he sailed accompained by Ariadne and the young Athenians who he had saved with his prowess.

According to the most famous version of the legend, Theseus got to Naxos at sunset and he stopped on the Island. Ariadne fell asleep and when she awoke she found herself alone; on the horizon Theseus' ship disappeared, he had abandoned her.

But soon Bacchus arrived to get her out of her pain, he appeared in a chariot drawn by panthers with his courtship, he made Ariadne his wife and took her up to Olympus.

 

 

 

 

 

"Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne". Annibale and Agostino Carraci, 1595. Farnese Palace.

Rome.

 

 

THE PAINTING:

 

 

 

 

If we start from the top left, in the mosaic stands the figure of Ariadne with the thread in the hand that turns into a spiral that surrounds her. On the side, there is also a bird, a species of heron, symbolizing her freedom, innocent before the arrival of Theseus.

 

 

 

 

Below there is Theseus slaying the Minotaur.

 

 

 

 

Of the two large figures, that one on the left has a tattoo with a spider web and through the window to her side you see a labyrinth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A labyrinth is a place where we get lost and we feel confusion, but also it symbolizes a necessary state to move to "another level".

 

In the mosaic above the labyrinth we see a figure in front of a threshold. It is no longer like the "free" Ariadne, she is on her knees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Behind the other figure that offers some wine there are vines and grapes.

They are inspired by a Greek pottery of the sixt century BC.

 

 

 

Dionysu (Bacchus) sailing on a background of lacquer red. Word of Execias. Munich. 

 

 

 

There is also another image in this part in mosaic: a figurine lying with the arms outstretched and another one raising a glass.

They symbolize both a victory as the mystery which is commemorated in the Catholic Mass (the blood-wine that triumphs on the death with the resurrection of Christ).

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on the side opposite to the labyrinth there is the winery as the Kingdom of Bacchus.