Bacchanal with a Drunken Bacchus, and Satyrs and Maenads

While researching sex in antiquity, Beverland must have read a great deal about the Bacchanalia. These effusive Roman feasts in honour of the god Bacchus were characterized by drunkenness and sexual excesses. In Raimondi’s engraving, an inebriated Bacchus, satyrs, and maenads indulge in a similar celebration. At the left a satyress even abuses a statue.