Ribera's etchings helped him to establish a reputation far beyond Naples, where he lived for most of his life. Usually considered his greatest etching, The Drunken Silenus relates to a painting he had produced two years earlier. In creating both works, Ribera drew inspiration from the prints of other artists, including Mantegna's pair of Bacchanals (29.44.15) and Annibale Carracci's Drunken Silenus (27.78.1.150). In the etching, as in the painting, Silenus is crowned—perhaps in honor of his skill as a poet—by Pan, who is clearly identified by his crown of pine and cloak of leopard skin as well as by the panpipes and crooked staff laid at his feet.

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