Year: 2019
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 55 x 45 cm (21 5/8 x 17 3/4 in.)
Acquired from Sotheby’s, 2023
In Greek mythology, Dionysus is the god of fertility and wine. Bacchus is his counterpart in the Roman pantheon. Ancient mythology has been the main theme in Kovařík’s career, and given the history of mythological narrative paintings, which are thought to have reached their pinnacle in the academic works of the 17th and 18th centuries, the natural expectation would be that Kovařík is trying to create his works within the discourse of those classical paintings. In this work, the bare figure that Dionysus's imposing is depicted on a canvas that is not particularly large. He calmly tilts his cup while looking off into the distance with a bloodshot eye, appropriate for the god of intoxication. Despite its delicate shading, the bold depiction of this figure does not aim for realism, instead prioritizing compositional richness through exaggeration and schematization. Dionysus’ aloof profile and half-turned posture with exposed chest recall the female figure in Henri Rousseau’s “The Dream” (in the collection of MoMA, New York). The painting also shows a profound understanding of the Cubist and Fauvist artists who were Rousseau’s contemporaries. The depiction of Dionysus occupies almost the entire canvas, but behind him can be seen a bright, full moon rising above a gray mountain range—perhaps Mount Olympus. The extreme perspective, in which seemingly nothing exists between Dionysus in the absolute foreground and the mountains in the far distance, further emphasizes the supernatural nature of this god, who appears in many tales of madness. In “The Birth of Tragedy,” Nietzsche borrowed the names of two contrasting gods to propose that the arts had developed through the duality of Dionysian emotion and Apollonian order and reason. The fierce passions hidden inside are a flame that lights the eye of Kovařík’s depiction of Dionysus.
