The Feast of the Gods (van Bijlert)

The Feast of the Gods (French: Le Festin des dieux) is a painting by the Dutch painter Jan van Bijlert, created around 1635–1640.

It is one of a number of pictures in western art to depict the feast of the Gods, in this case at the marriage of Thetis and Peleus, with Bacchus in the foreground, and a prominent dancing satyr.

The painting represents the popular mythological subject the feast of the Gods, and has been the property of the French Republic since the bequest of the collector Maurice Magnin (1861–1939) in 1938.

During the ceremony, the singer Philippe Katerine made an appearance dressed as almost naked blue Bacchus, with silver spangles and a saffron beard, half-reclining behind a cheese platter, on a platter of colourful fruits and flowers, arranged in offering in the centre of a long banquet table, bringing together different characters including a number of drag queens, stationed behind him.

[7][8][9] The painting represents a banquet taking place on Mount Olympus to celebrate the marriage of Thetis, a nereid, and Peleus, king of Phthia, in which many gods from Greco-Roman mythology participate.