(Bologna 1580–1638)
Bacchus and Arianna,
oil on canvas, 140 x 98 cm, framed

We are grateful to Daniele Benati for suggesting the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph.

The present composition depicts the moment when the god Bacchus, crowned with vine leaves, rescues Ariadne, the daughter of the Cretan king Minos who was abandoned by Theseus at Naxos. On the horizon to the right the white sails of a ship can be seen in the distance. Bacchus points to a ring of stars that allude to the myth according to which the god took the gold diadem he had given to as a wedding gift to Ariadne and transformed it into the constellation of stars, the Corona Borealis.

Giovanni Giacomo Sementi was a pupil of Denys Calvaert and during the 1620s he worked with Guido Reni. He collaborated with Francesco Albani on the decoration with mythological and allegorical scenes of the Palazzo Odescalchi at Bassano di Sutri, absorbing Albani’s composed naturalism derived from the models of the Carracci. The painter’s early work are characterised by his choice of bright colours – whites, yellows and bright reds – together with the strong contrasts of light and shade, possibly derived from the works Baglione and Saraceni. These painitngs appear especially striking and were of a kind unknown in Bologna during the first decades of the Seicento. Subsequently Sementi was to combine his sympathies for Roman painting and the influence of Caravaggist naturalism, with classicist elements derived from Reni, revealing his master’s teachings. As in the present painting, the narrative and symbolic function of light refers to Caravaggist sources while the stylisation of the figures conforms to classicist rigour. From 1624 the painter worked for Cardinal Maurizio of Savoy moving definitively to Rome in 1635, the same year that he appears in the records of the Accademia di San Luca (cfr. M. Francucci, Giovanni Giacomo Sementi tra Bologna e Roma, in: Paragone Arte, 787-789, 2015, pp. 21-35).

Sementi was one of the very few Bolognese artists to whom Giovanni Baglione dedicated a biography, recalling the success he had among Roman collectors: ‘Evvi stato un pittore Bolognese nominato Gio. Giacopo Semenza, allievo di Guido Reni...haveva buona maniera di colorire, dava gusto a i Professori; e...lavorava, con amore, e con diligenza [e] grande perfezione’ [‘There was a Bolognese painter named Gio. Giacomo Sementi, a pupil of Guido Reni … he had a good way of colouring, he was appreciated by the Masters; and … he worked with diligence and love [and] great perfection’] (cit. in: E. Negro, M. Pirondini, eds., La scuola di Guido Reni, Modena 1992, p. 331).