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Faun Battling a Snake

Italian 15th Century

1500

ink

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Renaissance Renaissance

Dominant colour

Faun Battling a Snake is a 1500 ink by Italian 15th Century, a Renaissance work, held at National Gallery of Art.

Who painted this?: Italian 15th Century
When & what style?: 1500 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: National Gallery of Art

About this work

This drawing shows a half-human, half-goat creature tangled with a snake. The creature’s arms are wrapped around itself, and its legs are bent awkwardly. The snake coils around its body, its head near the creature’s face. The ground is rough with small plants, and the whole scene is drawn in dark lines with shading. The artist used tiny parallel lines to build up shadows, making the forms look three-dimensional. This is called cross-hatching. Look up technique: engraving, cross-hatching to see how it works.

About the artist

Artist

Italian 15th Century

This anonymous Italian engraver from the 1490s carved images that could be peeled apart like paper dolls—each knot in the "First Knot" print was cut from a single sheet so you could lift the loops right off the page.

See the richer artist page