Faun and Bacchante with a Child
1650s
Medium
etching with engraving on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 23.2 x 16.9 cm (9 1/8 x 6 5/8 in.) sheet: 38.5 x 26.8 cm (15 3/16 x 10 9/16 in.)
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Accession Number
2005.127.3
Art Historical Context
Nicolas Chapron's *Faun and Bacchante with a Child*, created in the 1650s, captures a lively mythological scene from classical antiquity. A faun—half-man, half-goat creature symbolizing nature's wild spirit—frolics with a bacchante, a fervent of the wine god Bacchus (Dionysus), cradling a child amid exuberant revelry. This etching with engraving reflects the Baroque era's fascination with sensuality, movement, and classical themes, popular among French artists influenced by the grandeur of ancient Rome and Greece. Chapron, a skilled French printmaker, masterfully combined etching's spontaneou...