Nymph Riding on a Satyr's Back, from Bacchanales, or Satyrs' Games

Nymph Riding on a Satyr's Back, from Bacchanales, or Satyrs' Games — Jean-Honoré Fragonard. 1763.

Medium: Etching on ivory laid paper. Dimensions: Image: 13.5 × 20.3 cm (5 3/8 × 8 in.); Plate: 14.5 × 21 cm (5 3/4 × 8 5/16 in.); Sheet: 14.7 × 21 cm (5 13/16 × 8 5/16 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

This set of four etchings may refer to ancient bas-reliefs Fragonard saw while visiting Rome with an important antiquarian, the Abbé de Saint Non (see 1926.453–55). Indeed, the artist’s design for Nymph Riding on a Satyr’s Back directly derives from a sculpture (now lost) that he saw in the Villa Mattei. The size of the paired oval and rectangular reliefs—one or more of which might derive from ancient engraved cameos instead of large-scale sculptures—remains ambiguous, although hidden objects in the surrounding foliage suggest a large scale. Regardless of their source, the popularity of Fragonard’s printed reliefs reflected the taste for Neoclassicism in France at this time.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.