Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

The Metropolitan Museum of Art


    • A Satyr Family: From the series Scherzi di Fantasia, ca. 1743–57
    Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, Venetian, 1696–1770)
    Etching

    plate 8 7/8 x 6 15/16 in. (22.6 x 17.6 cm)
    Purchase, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, Dodge and Pfeiffer Funds, and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and Gift of Bertina Suida Manning and Robert L. Manning, 1976 (1976.537[19])

    Tiepolo, famed for his luminous frescoes populated by Olympian gods and allegorical figures, gave free reign to his fantasy in the Scherzi, a number of which depict the nymphs and satyrs who were followers of Bacchus (the Greek Dionysos), god of wine. From the Renaissance on, satyrs are often indistinguishable from Pan—the primary goat-legged figure in ancient art—yet the seated figure here, with his horns and bristly crown, pipes in hand, could be intended as the woodland god.

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  • A Satyr Family: From the series Scherzi di Fantasia, ca. 1743–57
    Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, Venetian, 1696–1770)
    Etching

    plate 8 7/8 x 6 15/16 in. (22.6 x 17.6 cm)
    Purchase, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, Dodge and Pfeiffer Funds, and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and Gift of Bertina Suida Manning and Robert L. Manning, 1976 (1976.537[19])