Young Bacchus Riding a Leopard Led By a Satyr Blowing a Horn
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
14.3 × 21.2 cm (5 11/16 × 8 3/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
138598
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Wenceslaus Hollar engraved book illustrations and several series of frieze-like bacchanal prints for his friend the Flemish painter Pieter van Avont, whose specialties also included devotional images of cherubs similar to ancient figures of the infant Eros. This sheet shows a wreathed infant Dionysos astride a leopard, an animal sacred to the god. The taller satyr blowing his horn at the front leads the procession onward in search of the next vineyard. Avont and Hollar may have been aware of Giu...
About the Artist
Wenceslaus Hollar · 1607–1677
Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) was a prolific Bohemian etcher who became one of the most accomplished printmakers of the seventeenth century. Born in Prague, he trained under Matthäus Merian in Frankfurt before entering the service of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1636. Hollar spent most of his career in England, where he produced approximately 2,740 etchings documenting an extraordinary range...