Nymph Sitting on the Hands of Two Satyrs from Bacchanales, or Satyrs' Games
INV-2868etchingprint
Date
1763
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 13.2 × 19.8 cm (5 1/4 × 7 13/16 in.); Sheet: 13.4 × 20.1 cm (5 5/16 × 7 15/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of the Print and Drawing Club
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, .454, 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.
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