Piero di Cosimo, 'A Satyr mourning over a Nymph', about 1495

A Satyr mourning over a Nymph

Piero di Cosimo

Not on display

About the work

Overview

A nymph – a mythological spirit of nature imagined as a young woman – lies on a patch of grass in the foreground, blood streaming from wounds on her throat and hand. A satyr, half man and half goat, kneels next to her, mourning her death. A dog sits at her feet, balancing the stooping figure of the satyr and seemingly mourning as well. More dogs appear at the lakeside in the background.

It has been suggested that this painting depicts an episode from the Metamorphoses, an influential poem by the ancient Roman writer Ovid. If this is the case, then the beautiful nymph would be Procris, who was accidentally killed by her husband Cephalus. A fifteenth-century adaptation of the Metamorphoses added the satyr, which is not mentioned by Ovid.

The painting’s dimensions suggest that it was part of furniture or inserted into wooden panelling. Piero di Cosimo specialised in the production of such paintings, known as spalliere.

In-depth

A nymph – a mythological spirit of nature imagined as a young woman – lies on a patch of grass in the foreground, blood streaming from wounds on her throat and hand. A satyr kneels next to her, mourning her death. A dog sits at her feet, balancing the stooping figure of the satyr and seemingly mourning as well. More dogs and a pelican appear at the lakeside in the background.

It has been suggested that this painting depicts an episode from the Metamorphoses (VII, 752–65), an influential poem by the ancient Roman writer Ovid. If this is the case, the beautiful nymph would be Procris, who was accidentally killed by her husband Cephalus. Believing that Cephalus was being unfaithful to her, Procris spied on him while he was hunting. Cephalus, hearing a rustle in the trees and thinking it was a wild boar, threw his spear, killing his wife. While Ovid’s work does not account for the satyr, it has been argued that the inclusion of this figure is due to a late fifteenth-century adaptation of the poem by Niccolò da Correggio. Although now little known, Niccolò was a celebrated author, his fame helped by the fact that he was also a courtier and military commander of noble birth.

Regardless of the subject, the painting probably served as the backboard of a bench or a chest, or as part of the panelling in a Florentine palace. The framing element drawn on the back may give a clue to its now-lost wooden surround. The Florentine painter Piero di Cosimo specialised in the production of paintings of such format, known as spalliere. His sixteenth-century biographer, Vasari, especially praised the ones he made for a member of the Vespucci, the same family for whom Sandro Botticelli may have painted his Venus and Mars. Unfortunately, we don't know for whom our painting was made, but it was once owned by a member of the Guicciardini, a distinguished Florentine family, which may suggest that it decorated a property of theirs.

Vasari also praised the artist’s great skill in depicting nature and animals, skills that are evident in our painting. There is a real sensitivity in the depiction of a dog mourning its beloved mistress – underdrawing revealed through technical examination shows that Piero carefully adjusted the animal’s position – and the flowers on either side seem almost to be bending in empathy with the figures next to them.

Key facts

Details

Full title: A Satyr mourning over a Nymph
Artist: Piero di Cosimo
Artist dates: 1462 - 1522
Date made: about 1495
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 65.4 × 184.2 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1862
Inventory number: NG698
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 21st-century Replica Frame

Provenance

From the Collection at Florence of Conte Ferdinando Guicciardini (1782–1833). Probably passed to his son, Conte Carlo. With Lombardi and Baldi at Florence, probably by 1856 and certainly by 1858. Purchased from Francesco Lombardi, Florence, 1862.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2015

Piero di Cosimo (1462-1522)

Gallerie degli Uffizi

23 June 2015 - 27 September 2015
2019

The Renaissance Nude

Royal Academy of Arts

26 February 2019 - 2 June 2019

Bibliography

1864

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy: From the Second to the Sixteenth Century, 3 vols, London 1864
1878

G. Vasari, Le vite de'più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori: Con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano Milanesi, ed. G. Milanesi, 8 vols, Florence 1878
1879

G. Frizzoni, 'L'arte italiana nella Galleria Nazionale di Londra', Archivio storico italiano, IV/113, 1879, pp. 246-81
1890

G. Morelli, Kunstkritische Studien über italienische Malerei, Leipzig 1890
1890

J. Meyer, 'Zur Geschichte der florentiner Malerei des XV. Jahrhunderts: Sandro Botticelli in der zweiten Periode seiner Thätigkeit; Filippino Lippi, Raffaellino del Garbo, Piero di Cosimo', Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, XI, 1890, pp. 3-35
1896

H.C. Ulmann, 'Piero di Cosimo', Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, XVII, 1896, pp. 42-64, 120-42
1899

F. Knapp, Piero di Cosimo: Ein Übergangsmeister vom Florentiner Quattrocento zum Cinquecento, Halle (Saale) 1899
1900

H. Haberfeld, Piero di Cosimo, Breslau 1900
1900

W. Kallab, 'Die toskanische Landschaftsmalerei im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, XXI, 1900, pp. 1-89
1908

A. Schiaparelli, La casa fiorentina e i suoi arredi nei secoli XIV e XV, Florence 1908
1912

W.N. Howe, Animal Life in Italian Painting, London 1912
1923

P. Schubring, Cassoni: Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Fruhrenaissance: Ein Beitrag zur Profanmalerei im Quattrocento, Leipzig 1923
1937

J. Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Vienna 1937
1939

U. Hoff, 'Some Aspects of Adam Elsheimer's Artistic Development', The Burlington Magazine, LXXV/437, 1939, pp. 59-64
1946

R.L. Douglas, Piero di Cosimo, Chicago 1946
1950

A. Lhote, Traité de la figure, Paris 1950
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1954

I. Lavin, 'Cephalus and Procris: Transformations of an Ovidian Myth', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XVII/3-4, 1954, pp. 260-87
1954

I. Lavin, 'Cephalus and Procris: Underground Transformations', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XVII/3-4, 1954, pp. 366-72
1961

M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
1966

M. Bacci, Piero di Cosimo, Milan 1966
1976

M. Bacci, L'opera completa di Piero di Cosimo, Milan 1976
1983

C.A. Luchinat, 'Mostra di disegni umbri del Rinascimento agli Uffizi', Arte Cristiana, LXXI/695, 1983, pp. 119-21
1985

D. Sutton, 'Aspects of British Collecting, IV: The Age of Robert Browning', Apollo, CXXII/282, 1985, pp. 96-110
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1987

F. Zeri, La pittura in Italia: Il Quattrocento, Milan 1987
1988

E. Callmann, 'Apollonio di Giovanni and Painting for the Early Renaissance Room', Antichità Viva, XXVII/3-4, 1988
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1991

V. Tátrai, 'Mesefigura egy Pieri di Cosimo Festményen?', Annales de la Galerie Nationale Hongroise, 1991, pp. 63-8
1993

S. Fermor, Piero di Cosimo: Fiction, Invention and Fantasìa, London 1993
1995

U. Bischoff, Die 'Cassonebilder' des Piero di Cosimo: Fragen der Ikonographie, Frankfurt am Main 1995
1996

A.F. Tempesti and E. Capretti, Piero di Cosimo: Catalogo completo, Florence 1996
1996

P. Barolsky and A.B. Barriault, 'Botticelli's "Primavera" and the Origins of the Elegiac in Italian Renaissance Painting', Gazette des beaux-arts, CXXXVIII/128, 1996, pp. 63-70
1998

R. White, J. Pilc and J. Kirby, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XIX, 1998, pp. 74-86
2000

R. Varese, 'Figure, che in una occhiata sola possono muovere ogni animo (Bartolommeo Ammannati, 1582)', Critica d'arte, LXIII/7, 2000, pp. 22-43
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

D. Franklin, Painting in Renaissance Florence, 1500-1550, New Haven 2001
2001

A. Brown, 'Lucretius and the Epicureans in the Social and Political Context of Renaissance Florence', I Tatti Studies, IX, 2001, pp. 11-62
2002

D. Bomford et al., Underdrawings in Renaissance Paintings (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 30 October 2002 - 16 February 2003), London 2002
2006

D. Geronimus, Piero di Cosimo: Visions Beautiful and Strange, New Haven 2006
2009

C. Elam, 'Piero di Cosimo and Centaurophilia in Edwardian London', The Burlington Magazine, CLI/1278, 2009, pp. 607-15

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

More works by Piero di Cosimo

The Fight between the Lapiths and the Centaurs