Art, literature & history
A Satyr Family Traveling
c. 1657
- Dating
- Approximate date range
- Held at
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Medium
- etching
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 22.4 x 22.4 cm (8 13/16 x 8 13/16 in.)
- Collection no.
- 1963.171
- Attribution
- By the artist
- Image rights
- CC0 1.0License details
Stefano Della Bella. A Satyr Family Traveling. Stefano Della Bella; The Cleveland Museum of Art; Gift of George P. Bickford. CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). Full-frame proportional resize and JPEG compression.
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
About this artwork
A Satyr Family Traveling — Stefano Della Bella. c. 1657.
Medium: etching. Dimensions: Sheet: 22.4 x 22.4 cm (8 13/16 x 8 13/16 in.).
Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.
The idea of a satyr family captured the imagination of many artists. Stefano Della Bella’s portrayal features a father and mother who travel with their satyr son, maenad daughter, and a herd of goats while carrying a grape harvest. Della Bella deliberately evoked images of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph on their flight to Egypt. Whereas the Holy Family is sacred and chaste, the satyr family is rooted in bodily pleasures. Theirs is a union fueled by wine and revelry, embodying the reckless fertility of nature.
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.
Location checked Sep 10, 2026. This does not indicate whether the work is on display.