Bacchanal, the Game of Leap Frog
1785
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
Artist
Laurent Guyot
Laurent Guyot (1575–1796) was a French artist, born in Paris.
See the richer artist page1785
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Bacchanal, the Game of Leap Frog is a 1785 by Laurent Guyot, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a wild party: half-naked figures leap over each other, grapes tumble, and wine spills under a gnarled tree. This print flips the scene left-to-right because printing reverses the image. Tiny dots of ink (aquatint) let the artist shade smoothly, like a soft pencil drawing. The smoke, leaves, and even a belt on the jumper are tweaked from an earlier wax model—proof that artists often copied each other’s work. Look up the technique called aquatint next.
Although Guyot’s print presents the same bacchanal as Gérard’s wax relief, the scene is flipped horizontally because the process of printing reverses the image. The differences between the two versions—apparent in the smoke, the foliage of the tree, and the belt of the central leaping man—suggest that both craftsmen may have worked directly from Moitte’s original design. Guyot’s use of aquatint, which produces areas of continuous tone with subtle variations in light and shade, makes the print seem more like a drawing than a sculpture. By printing on silk instead of paper, Guyot enhanced the…
Incense can refer to any material that, when burned, produces perfumed smoke. In the ancient world incense was often used a religious offering.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Laurent Guyot (1575–1796) was a French artist, born in Paris.
See the richer artist page
