Sixth Bucolic: Silenus, Pasiphae, and the Bull 1955

Jacques Villon made this print, Sixth Bucolic: Silenus, Pasiphae, and the Bull, using a lithographic process. Lithography, a printmaking technique using a flat stone or metal plate, allows for a directness of drawing, capturing the artist’s hand in a way not unlike traditional drawing, yet it also permits the creation of multiples, reflecting the industrial logic of mass production. Villon’s print merges mythical subject matter with modern artistic techniques, using the immediacy of lithography to blend ancient narratives with contemporary aesthetics. The choice of lithography invites us to consider the relationship between artistic expression and mechanical reproduction, where each print carries the unique mark of the artist's hand but is also part of a potentially unlimited series. This duality challenges conventional ideas about art's auratic value, instead asking us to consider the democratization of imagery that printmaking enables. Ultimately, Villon's use of lithography underscores how materials and methods shape our understanding of art, blurring boundaries between the unique and the mass-produced.