Landscape with a Satyr

Though generally attributed to Titian, who rarely signed his drawings, this sheet has also been associated with Domenico Campagnola (ca. 1500–1564) as a collaborator and as a sole author. The sheet depicts a satyr and the head of a goat in a sunlit landscape, evoking ancient literature, where satyrs often appear as lustful, drunken figures. Here, the satyr sits with an urn, likely filled with wine, his muscular, hairy form rendered with vigorous cross-hatching. The drawing has been cropped on the left side, producing a sheet about four inches smaller than the standard quarto commonly used at the time. The cropping exaggerates the discrepancy of scale between the satyr and the background. Thin, swift pen strokes convey the gently rolling hills and a fortress amid rugged cliffs in the distance. This pastoral scene—a popular genre in the sixteenth-century Veneto—paired with the iconography of the satyr may have been meant to convey a moral message intelligible to a contemporary audience.

The site of an enigmatic encounter between a goat and a satyr, this sun-drenched landscape evokes the Arcadian realm of ancient literature, in which the satyr is an often lustful and drunken presence. Here he sits with an urn (presumably filled with wine), his hairy, muscular body illuminated by the sun and modeled with vigorous cross-hatching. Thin, directional strokes of the pen distinguish the gently rolling hills and steep crags in the distance.

Paul Sandby, London (Lugt 2112, recto, bottom left). Sir Joshua Reynolds. Sir Thomas Lawrence. Samuel Woodburn, 1835. His sale, May 1836, Lot 79. William Esdaile, 1836. His sale, June 30, 1840, Christie’s, Lot 87. Andrew James. Miss James. Her sale, June 27, 1891, Christie’s, Lot 253. John Postle Heseltine, London. P. and D. Colnaghi, 1912. Henry Oppenheimer, London. His sale, July 10–14, 1936, Christie’s, Lot 196. Frick, 1936.

Source: The Frick Collection: Drawings, Prints & Later Acquisitions. Volume IX. New York: The Frick Collection, 2003.