Lucianus van Samosata en de Satire

This Dutch engraving celebrates the ancient Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata as the personification of Satire itself. A robed figure gestures toward a classical city while holding a telescope; putti bear his attributes—masks, torches, musical instruments. Below, revelers feast and carouse, while a statue of Lucian presides over the scene. The work employs layered classical allegory typical of 18th-century print culture, where moral instruction merged with visual wit. Rendered in fine engraving with careful cross-hatching, it inherits the tradition of emblematic satire prints that preceded Hogarth and Gillray. The composition celebrates satire as a noble, enlightened tool—a far cry from the biting personal caricature that would come to define the genre by century's end.