The satire and his wife 

Agostino Carracci made this print, called 'The Satyr and his Wife', some time around 1600, using engraving. It’s a classically inspired scene, a bacchanal featuring hybrid creatures, part human, part animal. What does this image tell us about the social and artistic culture of its time? Well, the late 16th century saw an increase in the founding of art academies. Carracci himself founded one in Bologna. These academies favored study and imitation of classical art as a basis for their own work. That’s why the figures in this print are inspired by ancient sculpture. But consider also that the artist is making a print, intended for wide distribution. We might therefore see this as an attempt to disseminate the classical style, to popularize it and make it available to a wider audience beyond the elite circles of the academy. To understand this work more fully, we can look at period sources, such as emblem books, histories and theoretical writings, for clues as to its meaning and cultural function. The art historian, after all, is always something of a social historian too.