How does La danse, Bacchante elucidate its Description?
La danse (Bacchante) is an oil painting on canvas with dimensions 73 cm × 54 cm (29 in × 21 in). The work represents a nude woman in a composition that contains a wide variety of exotic geometrized elements. Metzinger's bold use of color characteristic of his work between 1904 and 1907 is highly noticeable in Bacchante. His brushstrokes are practically all the same size but their directions and colors vary giving rhythm to the overall work. The depth of field is flattened; the foreground blending in with background components. The subject matter is classical—reminiscent of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (an artist Metzinger greatly admired)—yet its treatment is everything but classical.This early work in the Divisionist style represents a Bacchante (or maenads). In Greek mythology, maenads were the female followers of Dionysus (Bacchus in the Roman pantheon), the most significant members of the Thiasus. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Often the maenads were portrayed as inspired by Dionysus (also known as Bacchus) into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a combination of dancing and drunken intoxication. In this state they would lose all self-control, begin shouting excitedly, and engage in uncontrolled sexual behavior. Many artists chose this subject over the centuries, probably due to these dramatic characteristics.
Her body is depicted nude, seen from the front, with yellow and white highlights and turquoise reflections, the mythological reference serving as pretext for the nude. She is the primary subject of the work and is framed in an exotic setting that accentuates the arching curve of her back. She has a "deep voluptuousness," as in the works of Ingres (to use the term of Baudelaire), yet her timeless immobility makes her somehow chaste. The scene is seemingly calm and luxurious simultaneously.
Metzinger's early quest for a 'total image' explains the lack of illusory depth, the profuse light, and the refusal to depict a marked difference between the foreground, background and the woman's frame. Metzinger added a conspicuously tropical setting presumably under the influence of Paul Gauguin's Mahana no atua, Day of the Gods (1894) or Henri (lLe Douanier) Rousseau's Le Rêve (two more painters the artist greatly admired). Bacchante is already typical of Metzinger's style, with its sumptuous textures, sinuous harmony of line (for example the arching trees and foliage), and depiction of the serene attitude and chaste sensuality of the Bacchante's body—all enlisted in Metzinger's quest for absolute perfection.
maenads intoxication Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Thiasus Dionysus depth of field Paul Gauguin Divisionist Henri (lLe Douanier) Rousseau Greek mythology