Ornament met een maenade met tamboerijn en twee aapjes 1683 - 1733

Bernard Picart created this Ornament with a Maenad, tambourine, and monkeys in the late 17th or early 18th century. Here, symbols of ecstasy and transformation intermingle. A Maenad, a female follower of Dionysus, stands atop a fountain, tambourine in hand. Her image evokes the unbridled revelry associated with the god of wine, theatre, and religious ecstasy. The inclusion of monkeys introduces an element of the grotesque. Often used as motifs, they served as comic relief, embodying the chaos and the base instincts contrasting with the Maenad’s divine frenzy. The image of the Maenad resonates with earlier depictions of female figures in states of emotional intensity and loss of control, such as Salome in Renaissance paintings. These symbols resonate with the collective memory of rituals, and their emotional force is deeply rooted in the human psyche. These images re-emerge in modern contexts, reflecting our continuous fascination with the interplay between control and chaos, the sacred and the profane.