Le Mariage (The Mariage from, the Vie des Satyres)
c.1722
Medium
Etching with engraving on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet, trimmed within platemark: 25.4 × 33.9 cm (10 × 13 3/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
129451
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Claude Gillot mocked the sanctity of marriage with this pastoral scene, part of a curious series on the life of satyrs. The text beneath describes the rite as a “Sad feast! in which love finds its entombment.” Apart from the oversized reading glasses on the presiding priest, the participants are surprisingly well behaved and straitlaced, considering the mythological creatures’ legendary appetite for lust. Indeed, the print connoisseur and dealer Pierre-Jean Mariette found the iconography of this...
About the Artist
Claude Gillot · 1673–1722
Artist known for his elegant designs done in the Rococo manner of Audran; also for his predilection for scenes from the 'comedia dell'arte.' Few paintings survive; his work is known mainly through drawings and etchings. Comment on works: Genre; History