Why Did Theseus Leave Ariadne Behind? The Secret in Titian’s Masterpiece

A woman wakes up alone on a beach. On the horizon, a tiny ship is sailing away, and the man on it has just left her behind. Then a god jumps out of his chariot, straight at her.

This is Bacchus and Ariadne, painted by Titian between 1520 and 1523, now in the National Gallery in London. In this video we look at the two stories inside it: the myth of Ariadne, Theseus and Bacchus, and the story of a painter who froze one second in mid-air and painted it in a blue that cost more than gold.

You'll see the ship almost everyone misses, why Ariadne's dress was the most expensive thing in the painting, which ancient statue Titian borrowed and how he already painted the ending of the story into the sky.

CHAPTERS
0:00 The ship on the horizon
0:59 Ariadne, Theseus and the labyrinth
1:34 Titian and the Duke of Ferrara
1:51 Naxos: Bacchus arrives
2:20 A god in mid-air
2:43 Ultramarine: a blue more expensive than gold
3:28 Bacchus' wild crowd
3:55 The man with the snake
4:17 The satyr who looks at you
4:30 Which way does she go?
4:56 The ending, written in the stars

THE PAINTING
Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1520–1523
Oil on canvas, The National Gallery, London
Commissioned by Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
Sources for the story: Ovid and Catullus