Title: Poetry, a woman with a laurel crown
Artist: Raphael Morghen (Italian, Naples 1758–1833 Florence)
Artist: Intermediary draftsman Pietro Ermini (Italian, Arezzo 1774–1850 Arezzo)
Artist: After Carlo Dolci (Italian, Florence 1616–1687 Florence)
Printer: Luigi Bardi (Italian, active Florence, 1814–43)
Date: 1827
Medium: Engraving; fourth state of five
Dimensions: Plate: 12 11/16 × 8 15/16 in. (32.3 × 22.7 cm)
Sheet: 21 11/16 × 15 5/16 in. (55.1 × 38.9 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Gift of Harry Shaw Newman, 1941
Accession Number: 41.97.81
The satyr stands upright and majestically strides forward. His powerfully muscled torso closely resembles Riccio’s heroic nudes, like the beggar in the Saint Martin relief in this gallery. He is most probably Pan, the satyr deity who reigns over the material world. Designed to stand on a scholar’s desk, he carried the attributes of a flaming conch-shell lamp and an ink-filled vase, perhaps symbolizing Pan’s dominion over the elements. Such pairings of figure and function are rare in Riccio’s work, but the extraordinary balance of the topheavy figure on just two small hooves is typical of Riccio’s technical mastery.
This engraving is from a set of six oval-shaped prints that depict Pastoral Gods. It was published by Hieronymus Cock (ca. 1510–1570) whose name is inscribed on the rock at the right. Cock began publishing in Antwerp in 1548, and his firm became the most important one outside Italy. He made a few of the plates himself, but most were commissioned from designers and engravers. The author of this composition, Frans Floris, designed many prints for Cock. Cort may also have been an apprentice within Cock’s establishment. The series of Pastoral Gods were made in Antwerp in 1565, the year Cort left for Italy. (Metropolitan Museum)
Two satyrs and a faun seated to right watching two child satyrs and another satyr with an child on his shoulders dance to left, a round composition, from 'Six animal subjects' (Six sujets d'animaux).
Stefano della Bella (Italian, Florence 1610–1664 Florence)
Etching
