Sometimes it takes multiple artists to truly create greatness. “The Monster” needed Eminem and Rihanna. “Under Pressure” needed Queen and David Bowie. And The Feast of the Gods (1514–29) needed not only Giovanni Bellini, but also Titian, and Dosso Dossi.

The painting shows a gathering of Roman gods and goddesses, tended upon by satyrs and nymphs in a lush forest. Among them are Jupiter (the Roman god of the sky), Neptune (god of the sea), Apollo (god of the sun), and Mercury (god of commerce). Behind Mercury stands a serving nymph and satyr holding what is believed to be the earliest known painted example of Chinese porcelain in European art. Another god present is the Roman god of wine, Bacchus, seen as a young child, crouching to catch wine in a jug flowing from a barrel. The right-most figures are the nymph Lotis and fertility god Priapus (typically characterized in art by his oversized penis, which on this occasion is hidden under the drapery of his clothes), who will attempt to rape the nymph while she sleeps, before she is awoken by the donkey of Silenus, Bacchus’s aged tutor.

Detail of The Feast of the Gods showing young Bacchus and Chinese porcelain. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

The scene is taken from the Roman poet Ovid’s “Fasti,” a six-book poem first released in 8 C.E., which explored the customs and histories behind Roman festivals and holidays. Paintings of multiple gods gathering at a feast would become increasingly popular in the 16th century in Italy and Northern Europe, with this painting heralded as the first major example of the subject.

The Feast of the Gods was the first of a series of six scenes from mythological celebrations (called “bacchanals”) commissioned to Giovanni Bellini by Duke Alfonso d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara. The six paintings were designed to be displayed in a newly constructed gallery in the Duke’s palatial home, called his “Camerino d’alabastro” or small alabaster room.

Detail from The Feast of the Gods showing Priapus approaching the sleeping Lotis. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

The Feast of the Gods would be Bellini’s last completed painting, begun when the artist was already in his 80s and finished two years before his death. Around a decade later, the Duke commissioned the Mantua-born artist Dosso Dossi to rework the scene. Dossi made changes to the left portion of the landscape and made additions to the upper right, adding a pheasant and bright, highlighted leaves to a tree. Although Dossi is significantly less well-known now than his fellow collaborators, he worked for the Duke on several occasions: creating a frieze for his Camerino of scenes from Virgil’s Latin epic poem Aeneid, another large bacchanal, and a portrait of the Duke as a Knight of the Order of Saint Michael.

Titian was the final artist to put his brush to the canvas. The artist had been a student of Bellini (first taught under his brother Gentile Bellini) in Venice, where the older artist was one of the city’s leading masters. Towards the end of Bellini’s life, Titian took responsibility for completing his unfinished paintings when both artists were employed in the Doge’s Palace. When he was called to make alterations to The Feast of the Gods, he painted over Dosso’s changes to the landscape on the left, adding a mountain scene instead.

Detail Showing Dossi’s Pheasant. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

The Feast of the Gods was not the only commission Titian would receive from the Duke. Titian created two portraits of Alfonso as well as three other bacchanals, The Worship of Venus and The Bacchanal of the Andrians (both held in the collection of the Museo del Prado, Madrid), and Bacchus and Ariadne (belonging to the National Gallery in London). The artist had also painted a portrait of the Duke’s third and final wife, Laura Dianti, eleven years before their marriage in 1534, which occurred shortly before the Duke’s death. A portrait of d’Este’s second wife, Lucrezia Borgia, is believed to feature in The Feast of the Gods. The compositional decisions Titian took with his reworking of The Feast of the Gods may have been made with his other commissions for the Duke’s Camerino in mind.

Held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the museum calls The Feast of the Gods “one of the greatest Renaissance paintings in the United States.” The masterpiece is remarkable in the way that each contributing master’s hand is clearly visible: Bellini’s figures are untouched, Titian’s trademark blues blaze through the sky and the attendees’ clothing, and Dossi’s pheasant has remained happily sitting in his tree for 500 years.

What’s the deal with Leonardo’s harpsichord-viola? Why were Impressionists obsessed with the color purple? Art Bites brings you a surprising fact, lesser-known anecdote, or curious event from art history.