Nymph Riding on a Satyr's Back, from Bacchanales, or Satyrs' Games
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 13.5 × 20.3 cm (5 3/8 × 8 in.); Plate: 14.5 × 21 cm (5 3/4 × 8 5/16 in.); Sheet: 14.7 × 21 cm (5 13/16 × 8 5/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
28690
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This set of four etchings may refer to ancient bas-reliefs Fragonard saw while visiting Rome with an important antiquarian, the Abbé de Saint Non (see 1926.453–55). Indeed, the artist’s design for Nymph Riding on a Satyr’s Back directly derives from a sculpture (now lost) that he saw in the Villa Mattei. The size of the paired oval and rectangular reliefs—one or more of which might derive from ancient engraved cameos instead of large-scale sculptures—remains ambiguous, although hidden objects in...
About the Artist
Jean Honoré Fragonard · 1732–1806
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. Born in Grasse, he moved to Paris where he trained under Jean-Baptiste Chardin and François Boucher, winning the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1752. After studying in Italy alongside Hubert Robert, Fragonard returned to Paris in 1761 to fi...