Citation link:
https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/duerer_society1903/0016
To complete the pattern, the same composition has been drawn again in reverse on a second
block, perhaps by another hand, since the drawing is not so free or spirited. There are thus two
Satyrs, back to back, and two women facing each other at opposite ends of the whole sheet. In the
second half the Satyr’s back is shaded, for the light is supposed to fall on the whole from the right
side. The pattern was meant to be further continued, as is shown by the accompanying copy on a
reduced scale, by placing two of the pairs one above the other, and so on, till a whole wall or other
H. S. Beham.
Vine Pattern with a Satyr Family.
Reduced^ to show the effect of the pattern when repeated.
large surface could be covered, just as the pattern is repeated in modern wall-papers. This design was
probably intended for printing some textile fabric. It has recently been used, printed on linen in blue
and gold, for the binding of Dr. Lippmann’s volumes of facsimiles of Diirer drawings.
The woodcut was not described by Bartsch, but it was attributed by Heller (No. 2104) and
Passavant (No. 206) to Diirer. Dr. Schmidt, of Munich, first ascribed it to Beham. He was followed
by Dr. Pauli (No. 1342) and I have myself no doubt that this attribution is correct. It is a fine
*3
block, perhaps by another hand, since the drawing is not so free or spirited. There are thus two
Satyrs, back to back, and two women facing each other at opposite ends of the whole sheet. In the
second half the Satyr’s back is shaded, for the light is supposed to fall on the whole from the right
side. The pattern was meant to be further continued, as is shown by the accompanying copy on a
reduced scale, by placing two of the pairs one above the other, and so on, till a whole wall or other
H. S. Beham.
Vine Pattern with a Satyr Family.
Reduced^ to show the effect of the pattern when repeated.
large surface could be covered, just as the pattern is repeated in modern wall-papers. This design was
probably intended for printing some textile fabric. It has recently been used, printed on linen in blue
and gold, for the binding of Dr. Lippmann’s volumes of facsimiles of Diirer drawings.
The woodcut was not described by Bartsch, but it was attributed by Heller (No. 2104) and
Passavant (No. 206) to Diirer. Dr. Schmidt, of Munich, first ascribed it to Beham. He was followed
by Dr. Pauli (No. 1342) and I have myself no doubt that this attribution is correct. It is a fine
*3