Bacchanal with Silenus

Silenus, the plump companion of the wine god Bacchus, is carried by two satyrs and receives a grapevine crown from a third. The musicians seem eager to lead the procession, but things don't seem to be going too smoothly. The image recalls the format of ancient Roman sarcophagi, but since no direct antecedent has been discovered, Andrea Mantegna seems to have fully imbibed the lessons of antiquity and reformulated them into entirely original conceptions.