Bacchanales: Nymph Supported by Two Satyrs (1763): Art, History and Details

Bacchanales: Nymph Supported by Two Satyrs (1763) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jean-Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Jean-Honoré Fragonard made these four etchings shortly after returning to Paris from Italy, where he studied antique subjects and sculpture. He may have also looked at other sources for inspiration, such as Jacques François Joseph Saly’s suite of vase designs. Though the prints feature the followers of Bacchus, the wine god does not make an appearance. Instead, Fragonard highlighted the playfully erotic frolics, conflicts, and even family life of a group of bacchants, conceiving them as low-relief sculptures on stone fragments within abundant foliage. Fragonard’s creations helped to popularize revelries in nature in French art, architecture, and garden design during the later 1700s.

Object facts

• Title: Bacchanales: Nymph Supported by Two Satyrs
• Date: 1763
• Creator attribution: Jean-Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching
• Dimensions: Image: 13.3 x 19.7 cm (5 1/4 x 7 3/4 in.); Sheet: 15.1 x 21.3 cm (5 15/16 x 8 3/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2012.64.1

A detail from the museum

Historically, mythological scenes offered artists and viewers a socially acceptable reason to depict and enjoy nude figures.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Trust

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.