Satyr and Bacchante

Claude Michel (Clodion)

Basic information

ID: С-I-609
Author: Claude Michel (Clodion)
Name: Satyr and Bacchante
Date of creation: 2nd half of the 18th c.
Country: France
Technique: moulding
Material: bronze
Dimensions (height x width x depth, cm): 38 x 24 x 24

Additionally

Type: sculpture
Genre: mythological painting
Provenance: Collection of Agenor Goluchowski

Information about author

Author: Claude Michel (Clodion)
Artist's lifetime: 1738–1814
Country: France
Biography: Claude Michel (Clodion) (20 December 1738, Nancy - 29 March 1814, Paris) was a French sculptor and a representative of the chamber movement of Neoclassicism. He belonged to the dynasty of Lorraine sculptors. The artist received his first lessons from his father, Thomas Michel, a court sculptor of the Prussian king. Later, he studied in Paris under the famous sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. In 1759 and 1761, he won the main prize and a silver medal at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In 1762, he moved to Rome, where he studied at the Academy of Art for nine years. The exquisite plasticity of Clodion's works, mainly depicting nymphs, erots, satyrs, and bacchanals, gained him popularity, commissions, and professional recognition. Upon his return to France in 1771, the sculptor was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In addition to works on the theme of "gallant mythology", Clodion is the author of portraits, the composition "Dying Cleopatra", models of statuettes for the Sèvres Manufactory, drawings of plaques, vases, and candelabra. The master worked in marble, bronze and terracotta. He reproduced his works and put them on sale, which was an innovation for his time.

Object description

Based on Clodion's original work, this casting was made in the last third of the 19th century, when the Rococo style, in which the sculptor worked, was regaining popularity. The technological capabilities of the new era made it possible to reproduce the bronze originals of the previous century with high quality. The scene depicts a naked young woman, a nymph-bacchante (maenad), sitting astride a horned satyr with goat legs. He is bent under his load, holding the bacchante under her knee with his left hand and leaning with his right hand on a round bronze base, part of the sculptural composition. The woman holds the satyr by the horn with her right hand, and he, satisfied, turns his curly-haired young face to the right. The head of the young woman with loose, wavy hair and a plump face is turned upward to the right, and with her left hand stretched forward, she holds a thyrsus, the staff of Bacchus, entwined with a grapevine. Wavy drapery falls from the bacchante's right shoulder downwards, covering her lap. Drapery also envelops her figure from behind, as well as the satyr's body. Between the satyr's hooves is a tambourine with grapevines. On the base to the left, near the satyr's hand, is an inscription: "Clodion".

Inscriptions

On the base on the left, near the satyr's hand, there is an inscription: "Clodion". On the bottom of the base there is a red inscription: "Г-171". On the edge of the podium there is an inscription in white: "С-І-609/ Л.ОКГ" (difficult to read).

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Satyr and Bacchante

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