My 8 Most Favorite Depictions of Faun, Satyr and Pan in Erotic Art

Listening to Claude Debussy's Impressionist masterpiece "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" for the first time exactly ten years had a profound and powerful effect on me. Something inside me was changed forever. It was as if a block of ice had cracked or a river had burst through a dam. The music, inspired by Mallarmé's poem 'Faun ', conveyed such powerful imagery and I started seeking in visual arts the same Dionysian magic that I had felt in the music. These verses from Mallarmé’s poem are my favorite: “Those nymphs, I want to perpetuate them./ So bright,/ Their light rosy flesh, that it hovers in the air/ Drowsy with tangled slumbers./ Did I love a dream?” The poem inspired the music and the music in turn inspired the dance, that is, the famous Vaslav Nijinsky’s ballet ‘The Afternoon of a Faun’ which was first performed in the spring of 1912. Today I give an overview of my favorite paintings with the theme of Faun, Satyr and Pan.

Notorious Drunkards and Womanizers

Faun, Satyr and Pan; three different names for three different mythological figures, but it is almost impossible to distinguish them in the arts. All three are presented in the arts since the ancient times as figures half-human and half-goat. Faun was the Roman God of forests and fields and the protector of harvest and fertility. Satyrs were forest demons, thought to be the sons of the God Hermes. They were notorious drunkards and womanizers who loved chasing nymphs and playing flutes. Greek God Pan was also the son of Hermes and was born with goat’s legs. Just like satyrs, he loved playing the flute and also lived in the forest. In the mythological sense they might have different origins, but in the artistic sense their iconography is the same.

8) Gerda Wegener, Les Délassements d’Éros, 1925

Gerda Wegener's watercolour showing Faun or a Satyr and a woman making love in a natural setting is part of Wegener's collection of watercolours painted in 1917 and titled 'Les Délassements d’Éros'. In 1925 the watercolors were used as visual companions for the poetry book 'Douze Sonnets lascifs' by Alexandre de Verineau (pseudonym of Louis Perceau). The oval format is interesting and the grapevine which is subordinate to the composition serves not only as a nice visual element of natural setting but also the grape is tied with the Greek God Dionysius whom the satyrs adored. The Faun or the Satyr is resting on the ground with his arms under his head while the woman is enjoying herself. Their face expressions are so wonderfully captured; the Faun's face reveals his wicked nature while the woman’s closed eyes and open mouth suggests that she is submerged in the sea of pleasure, unaware of anything else.

7) Franz von Stuck, Faun and Nymphe, 1892

 Franz von Stuck's painting ‘Faun and Nymph’ shows the forest lovers lying on the grass, engaged in a sort of ‘prelude to love’, to paraphrase the name of Debussy's composition. The forest behind them is dark and quiet, but I can imagine the nymph laughing while the Faun is holding her bosom. Franz von Stuck is remembered as the painter of femme fatales but here the nymph is not cruel and domineering but rather a jolly young woman enjoying herself with a Faun.

6) Jean Antoine Watteau, Nymph and Satyr or Jupiter and Antiope, 1715

The art of the French Rococo master Jean-Antoine Watteau is always tinged with gentleness and a slight melancholy. The same mood can be felt in his painting ‘The Satyr and the Sleeping Nymph’. There is no direct lust or aggressive pursuit here, rather the satyr is almost coyly approaching the beautiful sleeping nymph in some forest glade. While she is sleeping innocently, the satyr is gently uncovering her. The whiteness of her naked body is in visual contrast to their dark surroundings and just like in Franz van Stuck’s painting there is a contrast between their skin tones.

Become a Premium member now and check out Asya's top five of her most favorite "faun" artworks.

Click HERE for the loathsome monsters and lascivious battles in the engravings of John Mortimer

What is your favorite Fan/ Satyr/ Pan artwork? Leave your reaction in the comment box below..!!