AFTER GIAMBOLOGNA (1529-1608)
Nymph surprised by a Satyr
1600RCIN 35457
Giambologna’s nymph, first modelled in the 1580s, was based on the ancient Roman statue of Ariadne in the Vatican. With the later addition of the satyr the group was sometimes interpreted as Jupiter in disguise, preparing to ravish Antiope. Charles I’s inventory of 1639 includes: ‘A naked woeman lyeing uppon her back. A Satire coming to enterprise her in her Sleepe’.
Purchased by George IV in 1816