Cleveland Museum of Art

Satyress

Giovanni Maria Mosca

Date

c. 1525–1528

Medium

bronze

Culture

Italy, 16th century

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In antiquity, satyrs were lustful woodland deities who delighted in wine and revelry. Renaissance artists adopted them as symbols of vice and carnal love; the female satyr, or satyress, on this bronze plaquette, recently reattributed from Riccio to Mosca, was probably derived from a copper engraving of a Roman sarcophagus by Marcantonio Raimondi (c. 1470/82-1527/34). Both the sarcophagus and subsequent engraving depicted a bacchanalia, or scene of orgiastic carousal; the peculiar objects surrounding the satyress have been added by the artist, possibly in an effort to remove the figure from her lewd original composition and give a more refined meaning. The satyress rests her right hoof upon a plumed helmet. A coiled shape, possibly a snake, winds out of the helmet. To her left, a laurel tree stands with only half of its branches in bloom. Two severed animal legs are tied around its trunk and an illegible plaque hangs from one of its branches. A lyre, a pan pipe, an animal jawbone and a bow are gathered at the base of the tree. The highly allegorical nature of the work uses obscure symbols, rather than a distinct narrative, to convey meaning and could possibly be read as an allegory of physical pleasure overcoming virtue.

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