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Satyrs Dancing from Bacchanales, or Satyrs' Games

A work made of etching on ivory laid paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of etching on ivory laid paper.

Date:

1763

Artist:

Jean Honoré Fragonard
French, 1732-1806

About this artwork

Fragonard may have copied the relief within his Satyrs Dancing from an ancient bacchic sarcophagus. The swaying nymph holds a noise-making rattle, and the artist implies that, however improbably, this sculptural figure has deposited her pinecone-topped thyrsos outside the frame. It leans at a jaunty angle in the bacchic vessel at left, which is decorated with a smirking face and grapevine crown. The thyrsos was one of the wine god Dionysos’s main attributes. These figures could well all be part of the bacchic entourage, including the nymph’s satyr spouse and three children.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Jean Honoré Fragonard

Title

Satyrs Dancing from Bacchanales, or Satyrs' Games

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1763

Medium

Etching on ivory laid paper

Dimensions

Image: 13.2 × 20.3 cm (5 1/4 × 8 in.); Plate: 14.3 × 20.9 cm (5 11/16 × 8 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of the Print and Drawing Club

Reference Number

1926.453

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/111931/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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