Young Satyr Playing the Flute

Roman art

The early sources cite numerous statues of fauns playing music in the Borghese Collection, some of which inside the villa, others in the first enclosure of the garden, decorating of fountain.

The sculpture of the young satyr playing a flute is probably the one reported by Iacomo Manilli, in 1650, and Domenico Montelatici, in 1700, in the room known as the Room of Sleep at the time, now Room 10. After the work carried out in the villa in 1888, it was moved to Room 8.

The statue depicts a young, nude satyr, leaning against a tree trunk to his left that is draped with an animal skin. He is looking at a flute that he is about to play, and the work must have been displayed along with another sculpture of a satyr who is instead in the midst of playing.

This iconographic type is found in numerous exemplars. The Borghese Faun in the Louvre seems to be the one most similar to the present work.

The sculpture is in all probability a copy of a Hellenistic original, as suggested by the clear influence of both Praxiteles and Lysippus. The theme, already found in the art from the previous period, gradually evolved away from more animal-like representations of the satyr to become increasingly refined.

Although various parts of the statue have been restored, its original character has been preserved.

Object details

Commentary

This young satyr is portrayed about to play the flute, as we can see from the shape of his lips. The figure, resting against a tree trunk to his left, puts his weight it on his right leg and is unbalanced on the left by the strong tilt of the opposite hip. His body is partially covered by an animal skin that, knotted over his right shoulder, crosses over his chest diagonally and is draped over the tree trunk. His legs are crossed, with the left held straight and the right bent over the other. His hair is rendered in thick, unruly curls and his wears a crown of leaves. There are two small horns on his forehead that get lost in the curls.

Iacomo Manilli and Domenico Montelatici reported, in 1650 and 1700 respectively, various sculptures of musician satyrs at the Borghese: two in what was at the time called the Room of Sleep, now Room 10 (Manilli, 1650, p. 106; Montelatici, 1700, p. 295), two in what was known as the Room of the Three Graces, now Room 9 (Manilli, 1650, p. 109; Montelatici, 1700, p. 301; C. Di Tomassi, M.L. Fabréga-Dubert, J.L. Martinez, 2011, pp. 298–301, cat. 29-30) and others in the garden, in enclosure one, decorating a fountain (Manilli, 1650, p. 11; Montelatici, 1700, p. 23).

The present sculpture was probably one of the ones in the Room of Sleep, although it has also been suggested that it was one of the statues in the garden and restored by Clemente Coltrice in 1625 (Moreno, 1980, p. 17; Tomassi, 2011, p. 386). The statue is displayed as a pendant to one with a similar theme (inv. CCXXVIII) but with a different expression.

After the sale to Napoleon, the work was moved to Room 7 (Nibby, 1841, p. 923, no. 17) and then, after the work carried out in the villa in 1888, to Room 8, where it was reported by Adolfo Venturi in the 1893 edition of his guide (Venturi, 1893, p. 48).

The figure of the satyr is quite refined, having lost the animal-like features typical of many ancient renderings. Even the small horns are barely visible and covered by the figure’s unruly hair. The iconography of the satyr with a flute was very popular, as we know from numerous copies, which are even found in funerary contexts. The most similar work to the present sculpture is the statue of a faun from the Borghese collection now in the Louvre (C. Di Tomassi, M.L. Fabréga-Dubert, J.L. Martinez, 2011, pp. 298–301, cat. 29).

This Borghese exemplar is an ancient copy of an original datable to the Hellenistic period: the figure’s relaxed pose and the device of a support pillar point to the influence of Praxiteles, while the three-dimensionality emphasised by the crossing of the arms over the chest, indicative having moved beyond the classical pose, suggests the circle of Lysippos. Writing about a satyr by Praxiteles, Pliny reported that the Greeks called it the periboetòs, or ‘famed’, satyr (Nat. Hist. 34.29). The position of the crossed legs also recalls works attributed to Scopas.

Giulia Ciccarello