Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The satyr stands frontally with his knees slightly bent. He extends his left leg and turns the right leg slightly outward. The figure’s feet connect to a rounded base, which is probably modern. Both arms hang down straight and are held a short distance from the body. The hands are broken off just below the wrists. There is some indication of a thumb on the left hand. The musculature on the torso is defined and naturalistic; an erect phallus is represented, and a very long, thin tail curves in a high arch from the back just above the buttocks before merging with the calf of the right leg. The muscles of the back are suggested by an indented area in the center.
The head is very detailed. His hair resembles a cap, forming a ridge along the top of the forehead. Equine ears appear through the hair on either side of the head. He wears a full, pointed beard and heavy mustache, which hangs down on either side of the mouth. Arching eyebrows appear above the eyes, which are indicated by inscribed lines for eyelids, but contain no pupils.
The satyr was a popular Etruscan motif, appearing in various media, such as vase painting (1). Small bronze figurines such as this satyr are well known, and many may have been intended as furniture adornment or ornaments for the house (2). They appear as decorative attachments on objects such as candelabra, oil lamps, heating vessels, tables, and cup stands. The presence of a base suggests this bronze satyr may have been a finial from a candelabrum. Since evidence for the attachment is unclear, however, it alternatively may have been a votive offering.
NOTES:
1. For general bibliography, see A. F. Gori, Museum Etruscum exhibens insignia veterum Etruscorum monumenta: Aereis tabulis CC. nunc primum edita et illustrate (Florence, 1737); A. Neppi Modona, Cortona etrusca e romana nella storia e nell’arte (Florence, 1925); and P. J. Riis, Tyrrhenika: An Archaeological Study of the Etruscan Sculpture in the Archaic and Classical Periods (Copenhagen, 1941).
2. For a similar Etruscan satyr from the Late Archaic period from Cortona is in Leiden at the Rijksmuseum van Oudhenden (inv. no. C. O. 12), see E. H. Richardson, Etruscan Votive Bronzes: Geometric, Orientalizing, Archaic (Mainz, 1983) 356, type V A, fig. 854, pl. 258. There are also many versions of reclining satyrs of similar style: see a Greek or South Italian reclining satyr c. 450-425 BCE in A Passion for Antiquities: Ancient Art from the Collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman, exh. cat., The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu; The Cleveland Museum of Art (Malibu, 1994) 71, no. 27.
Alexis Belis
