Venus Riding a Satyr

1602 · Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

mythological

This painting, which is quoted in an inventory of the collections of Emperor Rudolf II, must have been produced between 1602 and 1608, when Dirck de Quade van Ravesteyn is mentioned as a painter at the court of Prague. In Greek mythology, satyrs personified the spirits of untamed life that haunted forests and hills. Their half human, half bestial appearance is characterised by a human body with ram's feet and horns.

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About the Artist

Dirck de Quade van Ravesteyn

Flemish painter. Between 1602 and 1608 he is mentioned as court painter in Prague. He executed small-scale religious paintings and painted figures for several architectural panels by Hans and Paul Vredeman de Vries. However, later he turned to mythological subjects with large dimensions under the influence of the major court painters in Prague: Bartholomeus Spranger, Hans von Aachen and Joseph Heintz.

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