Design for a Lion's Head flanked by Satyrs 1652 - 1725

Giovanni Battista Foggini designed this Lion's Head flanked by Satyrs with pen and brown ink in the late 17th to early 18th century. The choice of satyrs is particularly interesting when thinking about identity during the Baroque period. Satyrs, as creatures of myth, were associated with wildness, nature, and sometimes unrestrained sexuality, embodying a tension between civilization and the primal self. Note how these satyrs are rendered as infantile figures. They are stripped of the threatening sexuality with which they are typically imbued, yet the association with wildness is still present through their animalistic features. Foggini, working under the patronage of the Medici court, navigated a complex social landscape. Designs such as this offer insight into the dynamics of power, identity, and representation during the Baroque era, revealing how artists negotiated classical motifs to reflect and shape their contemporary world.