Lot Essay
This statue is after a 4th Century B.C. original by Praxiteles, the most famous example of which is the satyr anapauomenos or 'leaning satyr' in the Museo Capitolino, Rome. Cf. Exhibition Catalogue, A. Pasquier and J-L. Martinez (eds.), Praxitèle, Paris, 2007. Satyrs are associated with the cult of Dionysos, particularly embodying the pursuit of wine and women. In early Greek depictions, satyrs appear as old and ugly, however from around the 5th Century B.C. onwards this characteristic is softened and satyrs take on the more humanized, youthful aspect of the Praxitelean prototype and of this example. For the treatment of the facial features and hair, cf. G. A. Mansuelli, Galieria degli Uffizi: Le Sculture, parte I, Rome, 1958, fig. 132; for a satyr of almost identical scale in the Chiaramonti Museum, shown in similar pose, carrying two small panthers and dated to the 1st Century, cf. B. Andreae et al., Museo Chiaramonti, vol. 2, Berlin, 1995, p. 266, no. 243, pl. XL5. Satyrs are often depicted with panthers, the sacred animal of Dionysos, cf. the satyr teasing a panther in the Musée Cinquantenaire, Brussels, in D. M. Brinkerhoff, A Collection of Sculpture in Classical and Early Christian Antioch, New York, 1970, p. 31, fig. 37. See also, M. Bieber, The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age, New York, 1961, fig. 568.
