Bacchus - View from the right, From the album Paradigmata Graphices variorum Artificum

The drunken Bacchus is an early work of Michelangelo created in 1497/1498 during his first stay in Rome. In all probability, the sculpture was commissioned by the banker Jacopo Galli, in whose garden a drawing of the statue was made in the 1530s by the Netherlandish artist Maarten van Heemskerck. The marble statue demonstrates Michelangelo’s mastery achieved at the young age of twenty, which attests to his diligent study of ancient sculpture. A sense of form, natural posture, the exquisite sculpting of marble and profound psychological insight are all elements of his sculptural genius that are present here. The Dutch etcher Bisschop showed the figure from three different angles, working from a drawing by Cornelis van Poelenburgh, who had visited Rome.