Titian's Bacchanal and The Worship of Venus, both painted in about 1519, represent the final works of his early maturity.
In the painting at right, Theseus, whose ship is shown in the distance, has just left Ariadne on Naxos, when Bacchus arrives, jumping from his chariot, drawn by two cheetahs falling immediately in love with Ariadne.
Bacchus raised her to heaven.
Her constellation is shown in the sky.
The painting belongs to a series commissioned from Bellini, Titian and Dosso Dossi, for the Camerino d'Alabastro, (Alabaster Room) in the Ducal Palace, Ferrara, by Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, who in 1510 even tried commissions to Michelangelo and Raphael.
This painting substitutes a painting from Raphael.
Between 1518-1525 Titian painted also Worship of Venus and Bacchanal of the Andrians, both Prado for the Alabaster Room.
Giovanni Bellini had in 1514 painted 'Feast of the Gods'.
