Editing Dionysus (section)

===Early modern art===
[[File:Michelangelo Bacchus.jpg|220px|thumb|right|''[[Bacchus (Michelangelo)|Bacchus]]'' by [[Michelangelo]] (1497)]]
Bacchic subjects in art resumed in the [[Italian Renaissance]], and soon became almost as popular as in antiquity, but his "strong association with feminine spirituality and power almost disappeared", as did "the idea that the destructive and creative powers of the god were indissolubly linked".<ref>Bull, 227–228, both quoted</ref> In [[Bacchus (Michelangelo)|Michelangelo's statue]] (1496–97) "madness has become merriment". The statue tries to suggest both drunken incapacity and an elevated consciousness, but this was perhaps lost on later viewers, and typically the two aspects were thereafter split, with a clearly drunk Silenus representing the former, and a youthful Bacchus often shown with wings, because he carries the mind to higher places.<ref>Bull, 228–232, 228 quoted</ref>

[[File:Hendrick Goltzius, Dutch (active Haarlem) - Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus (Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus Would Freeze) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|[[Hendrik Goltzius]], ''[[Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus]]'' (Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus Would Freeze)'', c. 1600–1603, the "Philadelphia pen painting''|alt=Hendrik Goltzius, 1600–03, ''Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus'' (Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus Would Freeze). c. 1600–1603, ink on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art]]
[[Titian]]'s ''[[Bacchus and Ariadne]]'' (1522–23) and ''[[The Bacchanal of the Andrians]]'' (1523–26), both painted for the [[Camerini d'alabastro|same room]], offer an influential heroic pastoral,<ref>Bull, 235–238, 242, 247–250</ref> while [[Diego Velázquez]] in ''[[The Triumph of Bacchus]]'' (or ''Los borrachos'' – "the drinkers", c. 1629) and [[Jusepe de Ribera]] in his ''[[Drunken Silenus (Ribera)|Drunken Silenus]]'' choose a genre realism. [[Flemish Baroque painting]] frequently painted the Bacchic followers, as in Van Dyck's [[Drunken Silenus (van Dyck)|''Drunken Silenus'']] and many works by [[Rubens]]; [[Poussin]] was another regular painter of Bacchic scenes.<ref>Bull, 233–235</ref>

A common theme in art beginning in the sixteenth century was the depiction of Bacchus and Ceres caring for a representation of love – often Venus, Cupid, or Amore. This tradition derived from a quotation by the Roman comedian [[Terence]] (c. 195/185 – c. 159 BC) which became a popular proverb in the [[Early Modern period]]: ''[[Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus]]'' ("without [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]] and [[Bacchus]], [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] freezes"). Its simplest level of meaning is that love needs food and wine to thrive. Artwork based on this saying was popular during the period 1550–1630, especially in [[Northern Mannerism]] in [[Prague]] and the [[Low Countries]], as well as by [[Rubens]]. Because of his association with the vine harvest, Bacchus became the god of autumn, and he and his followers were often shown in sets depicting the seasons.<ref>Bull (page needed)</ref>