Nymph Riding on a Satyr's Back, from Bacchanales, or Satyrs' Games

Museum record 28690: Nymph Riding on a Satyr's Back, from Bacchanales, or Satyrs' Games by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. A verified entry point for discovery.

What to notice

For Nymph Riding on a Satyr's Back, from Bacchanales, or Satyrs' Games (record 28690), start with modern, expressive, atmospheric. Compare the focal subject, edge treatment, and atmosphere before moving on.

Discover

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 the surr…