Haller von Hallerstein reproduces one of the eight almost identical paintings that Friedrich Rehberg (1758-1835) painted portraying Bacchus, the god of wine, teaching Cupid, the god of love, to press grapes. Cupid has put his arrows down on the ground. He has joined Bacchus in the ancient sarcophagus. And the grape juice, which is to be turned into wine, is pouring out through the lions’ heads adorning the sarcophagus and down into to antique jugs. Bathyllos is coming with even more grapes in his basket.
Reberg’s linking of love and wine is modelled on the 17th poem by the Greek poet Anacreon (c. 582-c. 485 BC). In Rehberg’s print, the ancient poem and the ancient tools have been placed in a landscape. And the vegetation appears to be German rather than Italian or Greek. The figures in Thorvaldsen’s relief (inv. No. A413), in which Cupid and Bacchus are pressing grapes, have much in common with Rehberg’s figures. But the landscape shows how Rehberg, in contrast to Thorvaldsen, sought to combine ancient elements with experiences from everyday life.
