Satyr's Family from Bacchanales, or Satyr's Games

Description

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, .455, and .456). 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 the surrounding foliage suggest a large scale. Regardless of their source, the popularity of Fragonard’s printed reliefs reflected the taste for Neoclassicism in France at this time.

Satyr's Family from Bacchanales, or Satyr's Games

Jean Honoré Fragonard

1763

Accession Number

28683

Medium

Etching on ivory laid paper

Dimensions

Image: 13.2 × 20.3 cm (5 1/4 × 8 in.); Sheet: 14.5 × 21.3 cm (5 3/4 × 8 7/16 in.)

Classification

etching

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of the Print and Drawing Club