Velazquez remains faithful to the bodegon tradition in many of the details of this picture, clearly showing the continued importance of the example of Caravaggio - whether in directly adopting a subject or as conveyed through the figures of human types painted by Caravaggio's Spanish follower Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652; p. 20 below). However, Ribera himself, who painted his major works for the viceroy of Naples, illustrates the fact that ultimately the Caravaggesque style seemed too plebeian to maintain its place at court.
Consequently, Velazquez too had to adopt a different approach and take his guidelines from other models. At the time of the Bacchus, Rubens, who visited Madrid for the second time in 1628 and painted compositions of his own for the king, inspired the young court painter to employ a much brighter palette and more spontaneous brushwork than before. Velazquez' brushwork in particular was to be heightened to an almost Impressionist freedom in his later works.

However, it was chiefly in Italy that Velazquez expected to find the inspiration that would lead him into new artistic territory. In 1629 the king gave him paid leave to make this journey of creative discovery. His ship landed in Genoa, and a few days later Velazquez set off for Milan and then Venice, where he saw works by Tintoretto (1518-1594) and Titian (c. 1485/90-1576). He went on to Rome, probably by way of Florence, and spent a year in the capital studying the works of Raphael (1483-1520) and Michelangelo (1475-1564).
The pictures Velazquez produced in Italy presumably include his two small topographical studies, vividly painted and surprisingly Impressionist in effect, as well as the large Forge of Vulcan. A preparatory study of a head for the main figure in this picture is extant. The god of fire and his assistants are working a red-hot piece of metal in the forge, which is grey with dust, and another journeyman is making a suit of knightly armour, its materiality depicted with a masterly touch, when Apollo the god of light makes his entrance, rather like the youthful hero in a provincial farce - yet radiant as his appearance may be, he brings Vulcan unwelcome news: at this very moment, as we know from mythology, Vulcan's wife Venus is keeping an amorous tryst with Mars, the god of war.

The half-naked figures, shown in richly graduated flesh tints and not, as in the Bacchus, pressed close together in a dense group, are depicted in postures noticeably influenced by sixteenth-century Italian masters. Although large areas in earthy colours are still reminiscent of Caravaggio, the greater vigour of the brushwork and the red of Apollo's robe, which is suffused with light, suggest those models now admired by Velazquez: Tintoretto, the Venetian master of colour, and in particular Titian. Inspired by his study of Titian, but never lapsing into mere imitation, Velazquez has softened his line, for instance in the religious painting Joseph's Bloody Coat Brought to Jacob, which was also completed in Rome in the year 1630. These influences are clearly illustrated by the detail of the little dog in the foreground of the picture, a feature often found in Tintoretto.
The composition of this picture portrays the dramatic climax of the Biblical story, when the garments of Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers, are dipped in the blood of a goat and shown to his old father Jacob, to make him believe that his favourite son is dead. The physical reactions of the participants in this grim story are very forcefully depicted. The setting is a large hall with its floor tiled in a chessboard pattern, a frequent element in the works of both Titian and Tintoretto. In the background, there is a view of a beautifully painted landscape.
Velazquez' travels in Italy soon came to an end. After visiting Jusepe de Ribera in Naples, he returned home - that is to say, to the court in Madrid - in 1631. He was immediately commissioned to paint the portrait of little Prince Baltasar Carlos, a task that the king had not wished to entrust to anyone else during the absence of the artist, who was now his favourite court painter.
 

While Caravaggio's fleshy Bacchus is almost Buddha-like in appearance, Velazquez painted the same subject in a considerably more rustic manner.