His enormous fine art collection – by far the largest in the city at that date – already boasted numerous other paintings by Ribera. At his death, Roomer left many of his best pictures, including the Rubens and the Drunken Silenus, to the son of his former business partner, who in turn divided his collection between his three daughters.
In an inventory of the collection drawn up at that time (1688) by the celebrated painter Luca Giordano, they were the two most highly valued paintings. It was at that point that they were permanently separated – until their temporary reunion in this display.
Painted in 1626, Ribera’s Drunken Silenus is dominated by the grotesque figure of Silenus, with his taut contours, bloated belly and his genitals scarcely covered by a vine-leaf. In classical mythology, Silenus was a god of wine and revelry, a companion of Bacchus, who was also wise and endowed with the gift of prophecy.
He is crowned with a wreath of vine leaves by the goat-legged Pan, while a faun replenishes his shell-cup with wine from a goatskin. Silenus’s donkey brays comically and two of the figures look out of the painting grinning, suggesting that the painting may involve some kind of private joke.
