The sculpture represents a satyr and a life-size bacchante in a scene that could be either an erotic game or an attempted rape. 8 The satyr is represented in his hybrid form of a goat-legged man, with hooves, horns and a tail. He places one knee on the ground while with the other he supports the body of the bacchante, holding the latter’s shoulder with his right hand. With her left hand, the satyr pulls a beautiful cloth, undressing her completely. The bacchante appears to try to push him away by grabbing his hair with her left hand and a horn with her right. He wears a crown with bunches of grapes, his eyes are half closed and a half smile appears on his face. Leaning towards the bacchante, the satyr looks at her with an expression of desire. 6​

Realization
With the help of his student Antoine Étex, Pradier created the terracotta model which, once modeled in plaster, was sculpted from a single block of marble between 1830 and 1834. The plaster model, patinated in ocher, is preserved in the sculpture gallery of the Palace of Fine Arts in Lille. A restoration confirmed the hypothesis according to which this preparatory group of plaster was indeed the original model, since it shows traces of processing, characteristics of a plaster intended to serve as a model for sculpting marble. 5​

According to Sara Vitacca, based on the testimony of Antoine Étex, the female nude was obtained from a natural mold, a practice frowned upon at the time. 7​ As for the model, contemporary authors believed they had recognized in the bacchante the features of Juliette Drouet, then Pradier’s lover. 4 Claire Maingeon also hypothesizes that the sculptor’s wife, Louise Pradier (d’Arcet’s maid), described by Alexandre Dumas as “extraordinarily beautiful”, could have served as a model. 8 The satyr has sometimes been identified as a self-portrait by Pradier, although it looks more like ancient models, 4 but for Claude Lapaire these are manifestations of the sculptor’s unconscious, rather than the desire to reproduce the features of a real person. . 9​

Inspiration sources
The theme of the satyr pursuing or ardently desiring a bacchante is a classic of erotic art and has its origins in antiquity. There are representations of this mythological couple on Attic vases dating from the 6th century BC. C. and in the frescoes of Roman villas such as those preserved in Herculaneum and Pompeii. A fresco from Herculaneum depicting a satyr discovering a maenad, preserved in the secret cabinet of the national museum in Naples, may have been a source of inspiration for Pradier’s sculpture. During the exhibition, contemporary critics considered the theme anachronistic and saw the influence of Rococo sculpture, typical of the terracotta style of Clodion, a sculptor who had often tackled the theme of the bacchante, and of Étienne-Maurice’s biscuit porcelain. Falconet.

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