1763
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Bacchanales: Nymph Supported by Two Satyrs is a 1763 by Jean Honoré Fragonard, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A nymph, half-asleep, leans on two grinning satyrs while a third peeks from behind a tree. The scene is packed with wine jugs, grapevines, and a lazy goat. Fragonard made this print after studying ancient Roman sculpture in Italy, but he swapped gods for mischievous partygoers. The wine god Bacchus is nowhere in sight—just his tipsy followers acting like rowdy neighbors. The lines are light and quick, as if the artist sketched the chaos in one sitting. For more playful 18th-century French scenes, look up *Rococo*.
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…
Historically, mythological scenes offered artists and viewers a socially acceptable reason to depict and enjoy nude figures.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard was born on 5 April 1732 in Grasse, the son of a glover, and moved with his family to Paris in 1738.
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