Landscape with Nymph and Satyr Dancing
Claude Lorrain1641
The Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo, United States
Claude Lorrain helped pioneer the development of the “ideal” landscape: balanced, harmonious compositions often featuring classical ruins and figures from ancient history or mythology. Here, a flute-playing shepherd and his companion make music with a reclining nymph (female nature spirit). A lusty satyr (a forest spirit that is part goat) coaxes a rather reluctant nymph to dance with him. The late afternoon sunlight falls on the group through the columns of the crumbling temple, setting this enchanted glade apart from the civilized world represented by the distant town. It is the clarity of light in his paintings and its unifying effect that set Claude apart from many other landscape artists of the time.
Born Claude Gellée, Claude moved to Rome from his native Lorraine, France at the age of about 12. He is said to have started as a pastry cook in the house of Italian painter Agostino Tassi, and then to have become Tassi’s studio assistant. By the 1630s he was the most sought after landscape artist in Italy, if not all of Europe.
- Title: Landscape with Nymph and Satyr Dancing
- Creator: Claude Lorrain
- Creator Lifespan: 1604 - 1682
- Creator Nationality: French
- Creator Gender: Male
- Date Created: 1641
- Physical Location: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
- Location Created: Europe, Italy
- Physical Dimensions: Painting: 39 1/4 × 52 3/8 in. (99.7 × 133 cm) Frame: 50 1/4 × 64 3/4 × 5 in. (127.6 × 164.5 × 12.7 cm)
- Subject Keywords: landscape; outdoor scene; fantasy; mythology; building; nymph; satyr; ruins; temple; sunset; river; town; trees; clouds; columns; evening; dusk
- Type: Painting
- Rights: https://toledomuseum.org/collection/image-resources/
- External Link: Toledo Museum of Art
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Fun Fact: Near a majestic temple ruin, a flute-playing shepherd and his companion make music with some nature spirits. One nymph beats a tambourine while the other dances with a satyr—rather warily, in view of the latter's leer and lustful nature. The light that streams through the columns, leaving most of the foreground in shadows, sets this enchanted glade apart from the sunlit country on the other side of the river. Beyond, where water, land, and sky melt into infinite distance, the light grows radiant. It is the clarity of this light and its unifying effect that ultimately accounts for the aesthetic beauty of Claude Lorrain's work. Claude's figures and settings are intertwined. Here the pastoral realm and references to classical architecture and mythology mingle to evoke the writings of the ancient Roman poet Virgil, whose poetry first captured the charm of rural life in the Italian countryside. If the figures evoke a poetic Golden Age, and the ruined temple recalls the passing of antique grandeur, the imaginative power of Claude's landscapes was grounded in an intense study of nature, as evidenced by the many drawings he made. This painting was done at the point in his career when he turned to a type of composition that is clearer and more classically balanced, evoking an ideal, imagined order. Born Claude Gellée in Lorraine (thus the name by which he became known), he went as a boy to Rome, where he apprenticed with painters specializing in landscape at the time when it was just becoming recognized as an independent pictorial subject. By the 1630s he was the leading landscapist in Italy, with commissions from the pope and the king of Spain, and he remained a sought-after artist for the rest of his life.
Get the app
Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.