This woodcut of the "Drunken Silenus" from around 1630, designed by Peter Paul Rubens and engraved by Christoffel Jegher, exemplifies how Baroque artists continued to find powerful expressive possibilities in classical mythological subjects. Depicting Silenus—the Greek god of wine and companion to Dionysus/Bacchus—in a state of intoxication surrounded by satyrs and nymphs, the print demonstrates how mythological narratives provided frameworks for exploring aspects of human experience that might otherwise be difficult to address directly.

The collaborative nature of this work—with Rubens providing the design and Jegher executing the engraving—exemplifies how printmaking facilitated broader circulation of mythological imagery, allowing compositions originally accessible only to elite audiences to reach wider publics. This democratisation of mythological imagery played an important role in maintaining the cultural relevance of classical references even as European society underwent profound religious and social transformations.

Silenus himself represents a complex mythological figure whose drunkenness was associated not just with physical intoxication but with philosophical insight and prophetic wisdom. This ambiguity made him a particularly suitable subject for exploring tensions between physical indulgence and spiritual/intellectual transcendence that preoccupied Baroque culture. Rubens' characteristic style, with its emphasis on dynamic, sensual figures, was particularly well-suited to capturing this paradoxical aspect of Silenus' nature.

The print's connection to related works in Munich and the Louvre's Cabinet des Dessins demonstrates how mythological subjects circulated across media and national boundaries, creating complex networks of visual reference that maintained the cultural currency of classical themes throughout Europe. The preservation of this print in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp reflects ongoing cultural interest in understanding how mythological frameworks evolved through artistic reinterpretation, maintaining relevance across changing historical contexts through their flexible symbolic language.