The Drunkards [Bacchanal]

Antonio Fabrés was a typical exponent, in México, of Eclecticism, an artistic movement, characterized by the blending of styles, chat held sway in the Parisian salons in the second half of the XIXth century. In an endeavor to maintain contact with the prevailingly French artistic trends of the day, Antonio Rivas Mercado, the then director of the National Fine Arts School, invited the Catalonia-born Fabrés to become a teacher of painting at the said institution in 1902. Fabrés employed the so-called "Pillet" method, using photography in order to achieve a higher degree of realism in his works. Executed in Paris, The Drunkards was acquired by the San Carlos Academy, where it was held up to the students as a model to be imitated, given that it was not only a monumental piece, but also exemplified the precepts of Eclecticism, which, ironically, were already deemed decadent and obsolete by some of the school´s alumni. The newspaper, El Mundo Ilustrado (Illustrated World) published a report of the arrival in México, in 1903, of Fabrés works, along with photographs of the painter and of many of the works that he had brought with him. The painting, which has a certain resemblance to the work of the same name by the Spanish painter, Diego Velázquez (1599- 1660), confirming that Fabrés knew the latter´s work very well, depicts a group of men involved in a drinking bout in a country tavern. In the center of the work, a man, clad only in a tunic and sitting astride a barrel that is emblematically adorned with vine leaves befitting the occasion, is raising his goblet. Behind him, two inebriated male figures appear to be falling down. The works realism, which can be appreciated in the detailed depiction of the characters' clothing and footwear, attests to the importance that was attached to form at that time. However, some people considered that it was frivolous and decadent, because of the classical- style monumental portrayal of the figures. This work passed to the MUNAL from the National San Carlos Museum in 1982.