Satyress and Child (1803): Art, History and Details

Satyress and Child (1803) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Clodion (French, 1738–1814).

The work and its context

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

Born in Nancy to a family of artists, Clodion was one of the leading French sculptors of the ancien régime and Napoleonic era. He went to Paris to study sculpture in 1755 and worked in Rome from 1767 to 1771. Although inspired by the art of classical antiquity, as seen in the mythological subject of this terracotta relief, Clodion continued to model forms with a softness and delicacy reflective of his training during the Rococo period.

Object facts

• Title: Satyress and Child
• Date: 1803
• Creator attribution: Clodion (French, 1738–1814)
• Culture: France, early 19th Century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: terracotta
• Dimensions: Diameter: 30.7 cm (12 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Sculpture 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1963.251

A detail from the museum

An invention of European artists of the post-Roman period, a satyress is the female equivalent of the male satyr in classical antiquity. Part human and part goat or horse, the satyress can be recognized by her animal legs and hoofs.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph King

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

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.