Pan Removing a Thorn from a Satyr's Foot
Unknown · 2nd century AD (?)
A young satyr sits on a rock, naked, one leg drawn up, wincing as the child Pan, with a leopard skin over his shoulder, kneels on the ground beside him and removes a thorn from his foot. The little goat god's face is all concentration; the satyr's body is tense with anticipation. The subject turns the famous Spinario, the boy pulling a thorn from his own foot, into a comedy for two. Pan's right forearm and hand and the satyr's crown, right shoulder and left forearm are marble restorations, and the rock with the right hand, the torso and half the head have been rejoined.
Genre scenes like this, with the followers of Dionysos caught in small mishaps, were favourites of Hellenistic sculptors and were copied for Roman gardens and fountains, where the comic touch suited the setting. The group is carved in Parian marble, probably in Italy in the second century AD, and was found there. It came to the Louvre in 1807 with the Borghese collection, and its playful mood is a foil to the great Dionysiac vase and the wounded warrior nearby. Look at the two faces and decide who is suffering more.
Did You Know? Ancient viewers would have laughed: the wild god Pan, terror of shepherds, is here a small boy playing nurse to a satyr with a sore foot.
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