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What ancient literary sources inspired Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne?

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Titian: Venus of Urbino — Titian *Venus of Urbino* by Titian, 1538; in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Titian’s masterpiece Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–23) was commissioned by Alfonso d’Este, who intended to emulate an ancient picture gallery as described in the Imagines by Philostratus.1

The painting’s subject matter is a conflation of two specific ancient literary sources:

Catullus: Titian drew upon his description of the abandoned heroine, Ariadne, and Bacchus’s endeavor to find her.1
Ovid: Titian utilized his description of the actual meeting between the two figures.1

Through the fusion of these texts, Titian captured the fateful encounter between the two characters, using color and composition to represent their distinct worlds.1