Young Sick Bacchus

Young Sick Bacchus

Artist	Caravaggio
Year	c. 1593
Type	oil on canvas
Dimensions	67 cm × 53 cm (26 in × 21 in)
Location	Galleria Borghese, Rome

The Young Sick Bacchus commonly referred to as the Sick Bacchus, dated between 1593-1594, is an early self-portrait by the Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, now in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. It is also called Self-portrait as Bacchus and Bacchino Malato. According to Caravaggio's first biographer, Giovanni Baglione, it was a cabinet piece painted by the artist using a mirror and the Carvaggio's reflection as the guide.

The painting dates from Caravaggio's first years in Rome following his arrival from his native Milan in mid-1592. Sources for this period are inconclusive and probably inaccurate, but they agree that at one point the artist fell extremely ill and spent six months in the hospital of Santa Maria della Consolazione. In an edition of the Clinical Infectious Diseases, an authority in the infectious disease publications in U.S., the painting is said to indicate Caravaggio's physicial ailment that most likely involved Malaria. The jaundiced appearance of the skin, and the icterus in the eyes are indicatins of some active hepatic disease causing high levels of bilirubin. This work, however, unquestionably dates from the same time. It was later among the many works making up the collection of Giuseppe Cesari, one of Caravaggio's early employers, seized by the art-collector Cardinal-Nephew Scipione Borghese in 1607 together with the Boy Peeling Fruit and Boy with a Basket of Fruit.

Apart from its assumed autobiographical content, this early painting was likely used by Caravaggio to market himself, demonstrating his virtuosity in painting genres such as still-life and portraits and hinting at the ability to paint the classical figures of antiquity. The three-quarters angle of the face was among those preferred for late renaissance portraiture, but what is striking is the grimace and tilt of the head, and the very real sense of the suffering; a feature that most Baroque art shares.

The still-life can be compared with that contained in slightly later works such as the Boy With a Basket of Fruit and the Boy Bitten by a Lizard - where the fruits are in a much better condition, reflecting no doubt Caravaggio's improved condition, both physically and mentally.

The painting shows the influence of his teacher, the Bergamasque Simone Peterzano, in the utilization of the tensed musculature depiction, and of the austere Lombard school style in its attention to realistic details.

See also

• Chronology of works by Caravaggio