Satyr Playing the Flute
Unknown (Roman, after a Praxitelean type) · 100-150 AD (?)
A young satyr leans on a tree trunk with his legs crossed, an animal skin draped over his torso, raising a flute to his lips. His short hair, the small pointed ears and the skin identify him as a companion of Dionysos, but the pose is that of the resting satyr made famous by Praxiteles, calm and languid, with the weight thrown onto the support. The flute, the right arm, the fingers, the tip of the nose, the muzzle of the skin, the feet and the plinth are restorations, and the upper face was reattached; the top of the head is an ancient piece added separately.
Roman workshops in Italy produced this version in the first half of the second century AD, probably in Parian marble. The statue was found in Italy and came to the Louvre in 1807 with the Borghese collection. Sculptors of the fourth century BC were the first to let a figure lean like this, relaxing the body into a long curve, and the type was so popular that many copies survive. Compare it with the dancing satyr in this hall, all motion where this one is all ease.
Did You Know? The flute he plays is a restorer's guess: the ancient instrument, along with the hands that held it, was lost long ago.
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