Baroque paintings and sculptures often depict naked putti, with or without wings, holding drapes or blowing trumpets. However, they are clearly only a decorative element. Sometimes such a little fellow is the main character, when he shoots love arrows like Cupid or, as on this little gablestone at Boschstraat 95, is the personification of the god Bacchus. The accompanying attributes leave nothing to be desired in terms of clarity: a cup and a jug in his hand, sitting on a wine barrel and a laurel wreath around the head. A clear example of: let's have another one; cheers!
No wonder then that Bacchus was one of the favourite names and images of inns and lodges.
The god Bacchus was regarded as the embodiment of love, the lust for life and drunkenness. He appealed to people's imagination, and festivals were celebrated in his honour, which, like today's wine and harvest festivals, have their origins in the mysterious eternal fertility of nature.
The stone comes from the rear building of the former Beaumont bed factory at Brusselsestraat 10d, but that was probably not its original location.
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