Bacchanal

All of Xavery’s known dated works were done between 1670 and 1674. Some of these works serve to ornament building in Leiden, but he really made his name as a modeller of small terracotta groups.

In the Bacchanal the central figure is Silenus, a wise but inevitably drunken old man who was considered to be responsible for the education of Bacchus. The donkey which Silenus traditionally rides has stumbled over a panther, which is also part of Bacchus’s entourage. A satyr holds up the drunken Silenus.