4. Albrecht Dürer
(1471-1528)

The Satyr Family

(click on image to print)
Dürer, The Satyr Family

The Satyr Family

Engraving, 1505, 115 x 70 mm., Bartsch 69, Meder 65 a (of d), ex collection: Conte G. Archinto (Lugt 547). Brilliant, black impression but with a great range of tone, before any scratches, on laid paper without visible watermark, trimmed on the plate mark and cut in a bit at the bottom right. Lugt specifically mentions Archinto’s beautiful Dürers. The subject derives oddly from the writings of Lucian, some of whose stories were translated by Dürer’s friend Pirckheimer. In one, the artist Zeuxis finds that viewers are more attracted by the novelty of subject than by the quality of his paintings and so he invents a scene of a centauress feeding her twins. Dürer knew this story and invented an equally novel scene.