Frieze of Satyrs Wearing Lion Skins and Playing Pipes n.d.

Lambert Lombard created this pen and ink drawing, "Frieze of Satyrs Wearing Lion Skins and Playing Pipes," during the Northern Renaissance. Lombard, positioned as a painter-architect, and theorist, worked in the service of the Prince-Bishop of Liege, and his art reflected the cultural values of his time. Here we see a Bacchanalian scene with satyrs, those mythical creatures, half-man, half-goat, often associated with revelry, dance, and music. They are depicted wearing lion skins, an allusion to classical antiquity and the god Hercules. Lombard turns to the classical world to legitimize the princely court he served. Consider the identities at play: the satyr, a figure of unrestrained male desire, now clothed in the skin of the king of beasts. This tension between wildness and domination speaks to the complicated construction of masculinity, power, and sexuality during the Renaissance. Lombard’s choice of subject emphasizes a desire to emulate, and perhaps control, primal instincts through a veneer of classical learning.