Bacchus, Vertumnus and Saturn

This ceiling fresco, which has lent its name to the room (Stanza di Bacco), has been variously interpreted. As a symbol of all-creative Nature, the vegetation god Bacchus, who is pressing the juice from grapes into a chalice, refers to the agricultural use of the villa. However, the combination with Saturn is unusual. Together with Bacchus, who appears here in the form of Apollo as leader of the muses, the old Roman god, lost in reverie as he listens to the music, seems to be an allusion to the harmony of the spheres.