Hellenistic: Barberini Faun

Art History

Ancient Greece

Geometric: Terracotta Krater
Archaic: Exekias, Attic black figure amphora with Ajax and Achilles playing a game
Archaic: Exekias, Dionysos Kylix, c. 530 B.C.E.
Archaic: Mixing Vessel with Odysseus Escaping from the Cyclops's Cave
Archaic: New York Kouros
The Classical Orders
Archaic and Early Classical: Ancient Greek Temples at Paestum, Italy
Archaic and Early Classical: East and West Pediments, Temple of Aphaia, Aegina
Early Classical: Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer)
Classical: Myron, Discobolus (Discus Thrower), Roman copy of an ancient Greek bronze
Classical: Parthenon Frieze
Classical: Sculpture from the Parthenon's East Pediment
Classical: Parthenon Metopes
Classical: Caryatid and Column from the Erechtheion
Late Classical: Lysippos, Farnese Hercules, 4th century B.C.E. (later Roman copy by Glycon)
Late Classical: After Praxiteles, Venus (Roman Copy)
Hellenistic: Barberini Faun
Hellenistic: Dying Gaul
Hellenistic: Nike of Samothrace
Hellenistic: The Pergamon Altar
Hellenistic: Apollonius, Boxer at Rest
Hellenistic: Alexander Mosaic
Hellenistic: Laocoön and his Sons
Hellenistic: Eros Sleeping and An Old Market Woman

Hellenistic: Barberini Faun Barberini Faun, c. 220 B.C.E., Hellenistic Period (Glyptothek, Munich). Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris & Dr. Steven Zucker

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Hellenistic: Barberini Faun

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Dionysus the god of wine didn't like to be lonely
he was surrounded by the satyrs and by maenads, he loved to party
--and you can't party alone--
No you can't party alone. And of course the satrys would become tired
sometimes after they drank a bit too much and that's exactly the subject
of the Barberini Faun that were looking at
Now a satyr is not
a human being he may look human to us but he's
in greek mithology part animal really-- That's right
he's a subhuman in the hierarchy of the gods where, the gods
at mount Olympus at the top, then you had heroes that were half divine
and half human, then you had humans, and then you had subhumans
even below that monsters. A satyr would be a subhuman
and if you look really closely you can tell that although
looks quite human in most ways he's got a tail, pointy ears
and sometimes this is even represented with hooves-- Yeah you
can see the tail actually coming from behind his
left thigh, that's where I first noticed it-- And for the greeks
these particular subhumans, the satyrs, were half civilized and half
wild and so it was wonderful way to express the uncultivated
the kind of barbaric qualities of human nature-- His name was the
Barberini Faun, he's not a really faun, he's really maerceder
but he's called the Barberini Faun because when he was discovered
in Rome near the Castle Sant'angelo in 1625
the pope at the time was from the Barberini family
and everyone recognized how spectacular this figure was and the pope
said well I officially declare this to be part of my family collection
He wanted to do that because it was so important, not only
is it just a stellar example sculpture, but we think this actually
dates to the Third century B.C.E and that it is
an original greek sculpture. Although it's always very hard
to tell where something is a greek original or a later roman copy
-- it could be a terrific copy, we do know though that
at least a portion of it has been restored. And you can see those restorations
quite clearly in the lower part of the left thigh and almost
the entire right leg and foot.
So the spectacular sculpture ended up here in Munich when it was apart by
Prince Ludwig of Bavaria in the early nineteen century
Quite a scultpture to add to his collection for his new museum.
It's an amazing thing to think that his was likely found
in the moat of Hedrian's tomb in what is now
Castle Sant'angelo in Rome. I imagine people were
dying to purchase this-- It's incredibly erotic
this figure has his legs spread he's in a drunken
half sleepy half awake state-- What you see that in his body
on the one hand it's absolute exhaustion, he's just
dead tired. But on the other side you can see
the agitation in his body.
There's tension there. Look at right leg, the way it's pushed up
up, now that part is a restoration, but we know that is pretty much
the placement because of a rock on which it sat.
And you can see his face too, that there's a combination of exhaustion and
restlesness-- Well look at that face. It is just spectacularly
sensitive and I love the fact that it is not
symmetrical, his head is pushed over to the side. And if you look
at his cheeks straight on it you can see the gravity is compressing
the right side of his face and is expanding the left side
and so there really is this intense naturalism,
this observation of the elastic qualities of the human body.
Now we're in the helenistic period where ancient greek artist
are expanding their subject matter so we don't just have
the heroic ideal athletic nudes that we saw in the classical
period, but here the artists explore a more emotional state.
More varieties of subjet matter-- That's right sometimes
this is either reffered to as the helenistic baroque because
of it's willingness to remove the reserve that we
associate with the high class of a period before-- He's certainly not reserved
in here-- No, not at all.
So what are the other symbols that identify his as a Satyr? As if the tail
and the ears, the want and abandon quality wasn't enough
You can see that he's laid out on leopord skin. He's on a rock
protecting him from the roughness of the rock. And you can see that he's even
keeping his heel on it, it's softer, and he's
rolled it up a little bit under his arm
so that it functions somewhat like a cushion.
Although it is a little hard for you to imagine him walking up to this rock
laying down the leopard skin then somehow lying on it-- It's a good seat-- It is.
So you said this is helenistic and it certainly is, in so many ways.
But it is clearly informed by the
by the classical tradition that had come before it-- In terms of it's
treatment of the human body and it's attention to musculature anatomy.
Absolutely that's really clear in the torso-- We can see the folds
of his flesh in his abodomen or the careful articulation
of the muscles, and the shoulders, and the armpit. This is
amazing understanding of human anatomy-- But it is also
a little bit off kilter. You can see that the
ribcage is pushing a little bit to his left. And so the whole thing
has a gentle turn to it making it even more complex.
There is a turn in the torso and we see that in other
ancient greek sculptures like the belvedere torso and although this was found
a hundred years after Michaelangelo or a little bit less, you can see
how that kind of twisting and torsion in the body
was something that Michaelangelo would pick up on-- I think that if
Michaelangelo had ever have had the opportunity to see this he would absolutely love it.
No question.

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