Oreads Removing a Thorn from a Satyr's Foot
Jan Muller
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Around 1590, Jan Muller, one of the most sought-after Mannerist printmakers, began making engravings after designs by Bartholomeus Spranger, the court painter to the Emperor Rudolf II of Prague. Rudolf, who reigned from 1576 to 1612, surrounded himself with artists, writers, scientists and mathematicians, who prized novelty and invention above all else. For example, the wounded shepherd with a thorn in his foot is a familiar subject in classical poetry and art, but Spranger seemingly invented a new variation on the theme. As illustrated in Muller’s engraving of the composition, Spranger replaces the shepherd with a handsome faun, who looks almost human apart from his pointy ears and the horns curling out of his hair. He is attended by three other mythological creatures, a young satyr, who supports his wounded leg, and two female figures known as oreads. Commentators have mistaken them for female satyrs, but classical sources suggest they are actually mountain nymphs, devotees of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt. The imagery of the engraving is clearly erotic, but in giving the oread who kneels to remove the thorn over large spectacles, the artist adds an intentionally comic element to the work.
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
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.