2009.48: "Barberini Faun"

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2009.48

People

Unidentified Artist

Title

"Barberini Faun"

Classification

Sculpture

Work Type

sculpture

Date

late 17th century

Places

Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Lazio, Rome

Culture

Italian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/331244

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Plaster with bone dowel

Dimensions

including plinth: 88 × 62 × 60.3 cm (34 5/8 × 24 7/16 × 23 3/4 in.)
plinth: 9.5 × 45 × 40 cm (3 3/4 × 17 11/16 × 15 3/4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• (not assigned): The surface of the faun is covered with graffiti-like inscriptions in ink as well as "child-like" depictions of heads. There are also traces of an inscription which is considerably abraded on the front of the base. For the most part, the ink of these markings is faded making the inscriptions difficult to read and decipher. In general, they seem lewd and seem to respond to the sexual nature of the object.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Principessa Enrico Barberini, Rome. [Barsante, Rome (1961)]. [M. & C. Sestieri, Piazza di Spagna, 81, Rome, November 22, 1963] sold; through John Maxon to Daniel P. S. Paul, Miami, Florida, gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2009.

Notes:
Document by John Maxon notes Principessa Barberini ownership.
See Hans Walter for Barsante citation.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Daniel Paul, Class of 1946

Accession Year

2009

Object Number

2009.48

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: the Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500-1900 (New Haven, 1981), pp. 202-4
• Hans Walter, "Der Schlafende Satyr in der Glyptothek in Munchen", Studien zur Klassischen Archaologie, ed. Karin Braun and Andreas Furtwangler (Saarbrucken, 1986), 1, pp 105-106, fig. 12-15.
• Jennifer Montagu, "The Influence of the Baroque on Classical Antiquity", Antiken Rezeption im Hochbarock, ed. Herbert Beck and Sabine Schulze (Berlin, 1989), p. 107, n. 61
• Jennifer Montagu, Roman Baroque Scupture: the Industry of Art (New Haven, 1989), p. 216, n. 91
• Jean Sorabella, A Satyr for Midas: The Barberini Faun and Hellenistic Royal Patronage, Classical Antiquity (2007), 26, p. 222; footnote 7
• Raimund Wünsche, Kampf um Troja : 200 Jahre Ägineten in München, exh. cat., Kunstverlag Josef Fink (Munich, 2011), p. 61, repr. as abb. 59

Exhibition History

• Around Antique: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs (Teaching Gallery) S421, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/14/2010 - 09/04/2010

Verification Level