Bacchic revel with Silenus in the centre riding a goat

Bacchic revel with Silenus in the centre riding a goat

Andrea Schiavone (Andrea Meldola)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In his prints as in his paintings, Schiavone combined elongated Mannerist forms derived from his study of Parmigianino with the tonal atmosphere characteristic of Venetian art. In this depiction of Silenus riding a goat in the company of a priapic satyr and an ecstatic bacchante, the indistinct contours of figures shaped by webs of hatching create a vibrant sense of movement.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bacchic revel with Silenus in the centre riding a goatBacchic revel with Silenus in the centre riding a goatBacchic revel with Silenus in the centre riding a goatBacchic revel with Silenus in the centre riding a goatBacchic revel with Silenus in the centre riding a goat

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.