62. A BACCHANALIAN DANCE.
Nicolas Poussin (French: 1593-1665). See 39.
This picture, one of Poussin's masterpieces, is probably one of four Bacchanals painted for Cardinal Richelieu:—
Whence came ye, jolly Satyrs! whence came ye,
So many, and so many, and such glee?
Why have ye left your forest haunts, why left
Your nuts in oak-tree cleft?—
"For wine, for wine we left our kernel tree;
For wine we left our heath, and yellow brooms,
And cold mushrooms;
For wine we follow Bacchus through the earth;
Great god of breathless cups and chirping mirth!
Come hither, lady fair, and joined be
To our mad minstrelsy!"
Keats: Endymion.