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We were in charge
of the press relations for the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections).
Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, joy and fertility
– known to the Romans as Bacchus – has inspired
a multitude of images that could hardly be more diverse and
fascinating. The excitement generated by the transgression
of social constraints and the creative power of preternatural
and untamed natural forces have captivated artists ever since.
His countenance, his story, his religious mystery cult have
fascinated people throughout the ages. His ritual veneration
symbolises the joy of life and escapism from reality, beatitude
and rapture, with his mixed mortal and divine parentage making
him more easily accessible to man than the distant gods of
Olympus.
The images of the god embody an ideal of sensuousness and
an affinity with nature that is closely related to religious
experience. In Renaissance and Baroque art he is the divine
representative of the triumph of life, and his image was used
to enhance the status of rulers in courtly festivities: not
only the delirium induced by wine but also his triumphant
processions, led by himself and his bride Ariadne followed
by excited satyrs and dancing maenads, are part of the canon
of Dionysian images.
Under the joint patronage of the Prime Minister
of the Free State of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, and the First
Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz
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