An offering to the He-Goat – May 2024

My name is Matilda Drake, I'm a first year Fine Art Student at Bath Spa University. This series of Photographs are a playful exploration of a Dionysian offering or the 'BacchanaIia'. I was first exposed to this concept when I read "The Secret History' by Donna Tartt. My work has themes of sexual desire, intoxication and animalistic sacrifices and rituals. This work was made in response to two paintings, the first being 'Bacchanalia" by Peter Paul Reubens and secondly, Francisco De Goya's 'The Witches' Sabbath, The Great He-Goat'. This is reflected with the imagery of the dark Satanic figure who I've named 'He-Goat'. The other figures represent innocent girls, drawn in by his promise of unadulterated ecstasy and pleasure. The photographs follow a linear narrative and were shot at Stanton Drew, the Great Circle, just outside Bath.

“To be absolutely free! One is quite capable, of course, of working out these destructive passions in more vulgar and less efficient ways. But how glorious to release them in a single burst! To sing, to scream, to dance barefoot in the woods in the dead of night, with no more awareness of mortality than an animal!” – The Secret History by Donna Tartt 1992