17th century

Bacchus and Ariadne

Dutch (active Liège, Amsterdam, and The Hague), 1641 - 1711

This is a reduced version of a larger canvas, now in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, that Lairesse painted about 1678–82 for the Soestdijk palace of the Dutch stadtholder Willem III (later King William III of England). In the story recounted by the Roman poet Ovid, Bacchus rescued Ariadne from the island of Naxos, where she had been abandoned by Theseus. Here Bacchus tosses her jeweled diadem to the heavens, where it transformed into the constellation Corona Borealis.