Created in the last years of Rubens' life, this painting amazes the viewer with its virtuosity of style and unusual interpretation of the image of the god of wine and merriment. Bacchus is depicted as a grossly obese man, surrounded by a satyr, a maenad and putti. The rich palette, in which all the colours blend into one golden stream, and the natural, sketchy technique, enabled the artist to create a genuine sense of debauchery, or bacchanalia. This is a paean to human flesh. According to Rubens' nephew, Philip, this was not a commissioned work, and the artist kept it in his studio till the end of his life.