Young Sick Bacchus
c. 1593–1594 · Oil on canvas · Galleria Borghese, Rome
📦 Free shipping on every order, arriving in 4–9 business days with production included. Express ($14.90) at checkout arrives in 4–6 business days.
About this work
- Artist
- Caravaggio (1571–1610)
- Year
- c. 1593–1594
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 67 × 53 cm
- Collection
- Galleria Borghese, Rome
- Movement
- Baroque
A sallow young man crowned with ivy, bare to the waist and wrapped in a white sheet, turns toward the viewer with a bunch of white grapes in his hand and a pair of peaches on the stone slab before him. The greenish skin and bluish lips gave the picture its name, Bacchino malato, and the biographer Baglione reports that Caravaggio painted several pictures of himself in a mirror while recovering from an illness in the hospital of Santa Maria della Consolazione; this is taken to be one of them, made around 1593 to 1594, and the face is accepted as the painter's own at about twenty-two. Like the Boy with a Basket of Fruit it was confiscated from the Cavalier d'Arpino in 1607 and given to Cardinal Scipione Borghese. It hangs in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, the earliest self-portrait of the artist.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
An ivy-crowned youth with greenish skin turning over his shoulder with a bunch of grapes, in greys, white and warm shadow, for a study, dining room or hallway at 24×36 in black. Olive, stone or dark green walls suit it; pair it with Boy with a Basket of Fruit.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Baroque painting
- Era
- 16th century (c. 1593–1594)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- intimate
- Rooms
- dining room, hallway or entryway, study or library, living room, dorm room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×36. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Young Sick Bacchus in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Young Sick Bacchus painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
