酒神巴克斯

This wine god in the woods started life as a saint. The figure was first painted in Leonardo's circle in Milan as John the Baptist in the wilderness, pointing the way and holding a long reed cross. Then, sometime between 1683 and 1693 in the French royal collection, a later hand converted him. The reed cross became a wine-god's staff, a wreath of vine leaves went on his head, and the animal-skin robe was painted over with leopard spots, the marks of Bacchus. Look closely and the pose still reads as the saint's, hand raised, one finger pointing off past the trees. Who actually laid down the original is still argued over; the leaves and grapes are the giveaway that what you are looking at is a holy figure wearing a pagan disguise.