Introduction

This essay examines examples of the representation of Bacchic subject matters in the history of art from the fifth century BCE in Ancient Greece to the eighteenth century in Europe, to help contextualize the iconography of the sculptures Nymph and Two Satyrs and Satyr and Two Nymphs presented in this exhibition, including the portrayed characters and the underlying themes. In the domain of the visual arts, scenes of bacchanalia, i.e., festivities celebrated in the honor of the Roman God Bacchus (Dionysus in Greek mythology) are identifiable by their use of Bacchic iconography. Bacchanalia, featuring deities and other mythological characters derived from the Roman God’s world, involved drinking wine, eating, and enjoying oneself.1

The essay includes several parts. First, the visual analysis of our sculptures will highlight their key iconographic elements. A summary of the myth of the God Dionysus and the analysis of related Hellenistic representations will follow. The iconographic shift that occurred during the Italian Renaissance will then be addressed, as well as the baroque influence of Bernini. The role played by Poussin, a critical source of inspiration for Clodion, will also be emphasized. Finally, the essay will conclude with a discussion of terminology, drawing on Montfaucon’s treatise L’Antiquité expliquée et representée en figures published in 1719, which played an important role in Clodion’s education at the École royale des élèves protégés.2 This retrospective approach will show that the evolution of the Bacchic iconography was characterized by the visual merging of the mythological characters of the bacchante, the maenad and the nymph on the one hand, and the satyr and the faun on the other.

Visual Analysis of the Sculptures

The identification of the iconographic attributes of the Columbia sculptures is necessary to situate these works within the history of the Bacchic iconography. The first sculpture, Nymph and Two Satyrs, shows the male characters embracing the female figure and leading her dancing steps (Fig. 1). The satyr on the right is holding the nymph’s arm, placing his hand under her shoulder while she is holding his waist. The satyr on the left, is holding her hand up in the air, as if he wanted to make her turn. With a single foot on the ground, her pose suggests not only dance but also a loss of balance, possibly a result of tipsiness. The satyrs, with goat legs and hooves, are wearing crowns of vine leaves and lion skins. Their animalistic nature is also conveyed through their pointed ears and facial hairs. The left satyr has a goat tail while the right one has a belt of vine leaves and grapes around his waist. The nymph, fully in the nude, has an elaborate hairstyle that suggests a crown. At the feet of the figures, a basque tambourine known as a tympanum – a Bacchic musical instrument made of a wooden frame with a tight animal skin attached to it – is displayed and enhanced with vine leaves and grapes.

The second sculpture, Satyr and Two Nymphs, shows two female figures on the left and a male one on the right, all dancing together (Fig. 2). Their intertwined poses describing gentle gestures, do not suggest the relation of domination characterizing the first sculpture but rather foregrounds the nude body of the nymph located in the center of the composition. From a frontal view, the left hand of the central nymph is held delicately by the satyr, while her right hand is held by the other nymph. Looking at the back of the sculpture, the satyr is softly holding the arm of the nymph on the right, while she is placing her hand on his back.

Each sculpture offers slight variations in terms of iconographic attributes, perhaps a way for the artist to show his versatility and capacity for invention. Compared to the first sculpture, the satyr in the second one does not have a goat tail nor a vine belt, but only goat legs and hooves (Fig. 3). Furthermore, the nymph on the left is the only female figure who wears a crown of vine leaves and grapes, while both female characters in this work are attached to a drapery which is not the case in the previous composition. At their feet, the thyrsus – the Greek attribute of the maenad, composed of a stick crowned with a pinecone – is exposed along with grapes, a tympanum and a vase (Fig. 4 & Fig. 5).

As the research conducted during the preparatory phase of this exhibition has demonstrated, the Columbia sculptures appear to be from the second half of the nineteenth century and related to the phenomenon of "Clodion mania", as reported in Hugo Scheitauer's essay.While they intended to imitate the sculptor’s style, they also display a strong erotic quality, possibly involving sexual violence in Nymph and Two Satyrs, that departs from the rest of the artist’s oeuvre as Sarah Jane Kim is demonstrating in her essay.

Mythology and Dionysian Iconography during the Hellenistic Period

Understanding the mythology of Dionysus (in Greek) or Bacchus (in Latin) helps shed light on the elements attached to the God’s realm, reflected in the iconography of the Columbia sculptures. Dionysus, the god of wine, drunkenness, grape harvest, and fertility, had a complicated birth. Being the son of Zeus and Semele, a mortal, he had to be protected from the jealousy of Hera, Zeus’ wife. For this purpose, Zeus carried Dionysus in his thigh and eventually turned him into a goat. Hermes then took him away and entrusted the nurture of the God to the nymphs of Nysa in Asia.3

The Attic red-figure drinking cup attributed to the Brygos painter shows the iconographic attributes of the maenads and satyrs,4 the mythological companions of Dionysus (Fig. 6). It is in Athens at the beginning of the 6th century BCE that a precise typology for these figures first appeared.5 As the cup shows, for the Greeks, the satyr was associated with the horse and represented with a pug face and a horse's tail and ears. Sometimes, he could be portrayed wearing a panther skin or a deer skin. The maenad had a crown of vine leaves in her hair and held the thyrsus. They either wore the chiton 6 or an animal skin alluding to the violent sacrifices they made in honor of Dionysus, where they would tear apart wild animals or human beings with their bare hands. 7

These distinctive iconographic elements of the mythic male and female companion of the God of wine reoccur with variations throughout the history of art. In the Attic cup, the maenads and satyrs are shown dancing and playing Bacchic musical instruments.8 Music and dance played an important role in bacchanalia, as also exemplified by our sculptures, which show the figures dancing with a tympanum displayed at their feet. 9

The Attic cup also features a satyr kissing a maenad who seems to consent to his embrace, combined with him sliding his hand underneath her chiton. Love and eroticism were important components of the Ancient iconography, as Dionysus, the maenads, and the satyrs embodied pleasure.10 Therefore, the example of the cup is particularly relevant. However, different types of relationships existed between the characters engaging in bacchanalia. Occasionally, this relationship seems to be consensual, but most of the time, it is a relationship of domination of the satyr over the maenad, emphasizing the power of the former’s animal instinct. In the Attic drinking cup of the Douris painter preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the satyr is lifting the maenad up in the air while she is trying to ward him off with her thyrsus (Fig. 7). As in Nymph and Two Satyrs in the Columbia collection, male characters are trying to dominate the female figure. In some cases, the maenad violently rejects the satyr,11 echoing the violence involved in the Dionysian ritual where human beings would be torn apart and their dismembered bodies hit with the thyrsus.

From an Ancient Greek point of view, the iconography of the satyrs in the Columbia sculptures correspond more closely to that of the God Pan or the faun. Indeed, the satyrs have body parts of goats instead of horses. In fact, the Ancient statues known as the Della Valle Satyrs that were discovered during the Renaissance 12 actually represent the God Pan, a half-human half-caprin creature with goat legs and horns (Fig. 8). Pan was an Arcadian God who protected herds and was associated with fear and the world of mountains, as well as with lust. 13

It is very possible that Clodion saw the Della Valle Satyrs as they were exhibited in the courtyard of the Capitoline Museum when the artist was in Rome, and were also illustrated in Montfaucon’s treatise, a key reference at the École royale des élèves protégés.14 More generally, the Della Valle Satyrs were praised in standard anthologies of Ancient sculpture,15 which may have further encouraged Clodion to emulate the iconography of these works.

The Reinterpretation of Bacchic Subject Matters during the Renaissance

During the Renaissance, the iconography of the satyr, faun, God Pan, and Bacchus merged, exemplifying how artists enjoyed reinventing the iconography of the bacchanalia.

Bacchus and Ariadne painted by Titian in 1522-23 is a compelling example (Fig. 9). In the center of the composition, a satyr is represented as a baby with goat legs and hooves – the traditional attributes of the mythological figure. On the right, a faun is depicted with horns but no goat legs, and a snake wrapped around his body. Further to the right, another male character, wearing a crown and a belt of vine leaves, and portrayed with hairy thighs but without hooves, could either be a satyr, a faun or a bacchant (Fig. 10). The female characters, who could be identified as bacchantes or maenads, are wearing classical draperies while their cymbals and the tympanum evokes music. As other artists of the Renaissance,16 Titian interpreted the triumphant representation of Bacchus’ mythological suite, offering a vision of the Bacchic paragon that combined the animal and human sphere, thus conveying an impression of untamed mythological wilderness. 17

As Titian’s painting shows, Bacchic subject matters allowed Renaissance artists to play with a variety of forms and represent bodies in expressive postures. As such, this topic was propitious to the exploration of the female and male body interaction, a theme that Bernini and later Clodion exploited in their elegant and lively compositions.

The Dynamism of Bernini

In order to appreciate the airiness and dynamism of Clodion’s work, it is important to look back at the compositions of Bernini (1598-1680).

The famous sculptures The Rape of Proserpina (1621-22) and Apollo and Daphne (1622-25) both depict the theme of the pursuit, with a strong sense of violent domination in the first work, which becomes less tangible in the second one, showing the fleeing nymph (Fig. 11 & Fig. 12). As his baroque predecessor, Clodion was interested in injecting lightness and grace in his compositions; however, the French sculptor chose delicacy over force.18 Thus, Satyr Lifting a Tambourine-Playing Bacchante can be associated with Apollo and Daphne, especially the bacchante’s drapery frozen in the air and the dynamic pose of the characters, with the satyr pulling the bacchante against his body (Fig. 13).

Bernini’s compositional influence is also noticeable in the Columbia sculptures. For example, in Satyr and Two Nymphs, the satyr placed behind the bacchante with a floating drapery is reminiscent of the posture of Apollo behind Daphne. Moreover, in Nymph and Two Satyrs, an impression of a forced dance is palpable, echoing the power relation at stake for Pluto and Proserpina. As such, Nymph and Two Satyrs departs from Clodion’s artistic sensibility, which was closer to Poussin’s and his own predilection for elegance and grace.19

The Major Role of Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) remained a major model for the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture during Clodion’s time. His art reflected an important shift in the Bacchic iconography, fusing the figures of Venus, the bacchante and the nymph into what Philippe Morel has called the "Bacchic nymph." 20

This merging was possible because the bacchante shared the qualities of Venus, including beauty, voluptuousness and eroticism.21 This is particularly visible in The Nurture of Bacchus, where the reclining nymph or bacchante is placed in the foreground 22 (Fig. 14). Importantly for our purpose, the satyr is represented with goat legs, hooves and a vine crown, which corresponds to the iconography of the Columbia sculptures.

In his oeuvre, the French painter also re-introduced the image of the satyr and the bacchante as the only protagonists of a scene, when earlier in the Renaissance they were always portrayed accompanied by Bacchus and Ariadne, in a triumphal suite as in Titian’s painting.

Issues of Terminology

Considering Poussin’s visual introduction of the “Bacchic nymph,” it is necessary to address issues of terminology. What were the differences between a nymph,23 a maenad, and a bacchante,24 all of them evoking the sensuality of Venus, in contemporary treatises on Antiquity? It seems difficult or even irrelevant to provide a definite answer.

• 1 Tite-Live was denouncing the scandalous and extravagant dimension of those feasts which led to repressive measures. From around 186 BCE, the Latin word “bacchanalia” was used in the singular to designate a place of cult worship. In the plural it designates religious groups and cult rituals. The term bacchanalia was originally based on a cult name of Bacchus, the Greek Dionysus. Livy described the beginning of what researchers call ‘the bacchanalia sacrilege’ as a private transfer of the Bacchus mysteries. Up until the 1970s, Livy’s report dealt about a supposed conspiracy of men and women who were initiated into ‘bacchanalia’ which was accepted as testimony of orgiastic meetings. The lack of any other literary or archeological evidence further contradicts the credibility concerning these religious ceremonies and excesses. Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, and Manfred Landfester, eds., Brill’s Encyclopedia of the Ancient World New Pauly (Boston: Brill Leiden, 2003), 2: 446-447.
• 2This treatise was then translated in English under the title Antiquity explained,and represented in sculptures and published around 1721 and 1722.
• 3Anne L. Poulet, “On the Run. Clodion’s Bacchanalian Figures,” in French Art of the Eighteenth Century. The Michael L. Rosenberg Lecture Series at the Dallas Museum of Art, ed. Heather MacDonald (Dallas: Museum of Art, 2016),170-179; François Lissarrague, “ Bacchantes et bacchanals en Grèce et à Rome : de l’extase au scandale," in Bacchanales modernes ! Le nu, l’ivresse et la danse dans l’art français du XIXe siècle, ed. Sandra Butti-Hasan and Sara Vitacca (Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2016), 23.
• 4In modern literature, both the mythical companions of Dionysus and their historical admirers are mostly called Maenads. But in the Greek cult terminology the women who honored the God with a dance ritual every three years are called Bákchai (Lat. Bacchae), which could be translated by Bacchantes ( Gaffiot) while the substantivized adjective Mainás (‘the mad one’, from maínesthai : ‘to be mad’). Backai or Bacchantes were probably women of the upper class. Maenadism is clearly assumed to be mythical. To sum up, maenads are rather the mythic companions of Dionysus in the literature when the bacchantes would rather be human women belonging to the God’s suite and rituals in the life of Ancient Greece. The satyrs (Greek Sátyros, Latin Sátyroi) are the male mythological companions of Dionysus and are part of his suite. They can be the embodiment of the God and are mythically present in the moment of Grape Harvest and of the Greek banquet. Their animalistic nature expressed in specific physical characteristics: sub-nosed, baldness, ityphallic, nudity and equine attributes; is also noticeable in their behavior. They represent what the respectable Greek citizen should not be. Satyrs drink pure wine with excess when a citizen knows that the right way to consume it, is to mix it with water in order to remain in possession of his senses. Instead, the anthropomorphic figure reaches drunkenness quickly and has an excessive and self-indulgent sexual activity which can become increasingly aggressive towards the maenad who can violently defend herself. Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, and Manfred Landfester, eds., Brill’s Encyclopedia of the Ancient World New Pauly, (Boston: Brill Leiden, 2003), 8: 115-118, 13: 31-32 ; Pascale Jacquet-Rimassa, “Autour du vin: pour un parcours dionysiaque,” Pallas 90 (2013): 39-51.
• 5Pascale Jacquet-Rimassa, “Dionysos, d’ici et d’ailleurs” Pallas 48 (1998): 19-42.
• 6Dress made of linen in Ancient Greece.
• 7Euripides, in the Bacchae, recalled that when Greek women left their homes to go in the forest and drink wine, they became maenads and thus mythological figures prone to violence. When maenads drunk wine which was considered as the essence of Dionyus, they got into a Dionysian mania, a trance that led them to performing ecstatic dances and gestures. In turn, it could trigger a violent Dionysian sacrifice called diasparagmos. Indeed, in the myth of Pentheus, the maenads are described tearing apart the limbs of wild animals with their bare hands. When their mania was over, Agave, one of the maenad, realized that she had actually torn apart her own son, Pentheus, and was playing with his beheaded skull that she had confused for a lion's head. As a result, the Greeks viewed the association of woman and wine as negative and dangerous. This violent aspect is often present in the Dionysian iconography. Marie-Christine Villanueva, "Des ménades et de la violence dans la céramique attique," in La violence dans les mondes grec et romain, ed. Jean-Marie Bertrand, (Paris : Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2005), 225-243; François Lissarague "Bacchantes et bacchanales en Grèce et à Rome : de l’extase au scandale," in Bacchanales modernes! Le nu, l'ivresse et la danse dans l'art français du XIXe siècle , ed.Sandra Buratti-Hasan, Sara Vitacca, (Milan: Silvana editoriale, 2016), 23.
• 8In the Bacchae by Euripides, women joining bacchanalias in the forest, and thus becoming bacchantes or maenads, were suspected to give in to the pleasures of Aphrodite. Hitting the rocks with their thyrsus that in turns were spurting wine,they were observed dancing, playing instruments and singing. François Lissarague, “Bacchantes et bacchanales en Grèce et à Rome: de l'extase au scandale”.
• 9The representation of music and the association of the maenad with a tympanon was particularly rich during the classical period corresponding to the years 440-300 BCE. Pascale Jacquet- Rimassa, “Les représentations de la musique, divertissement du symposion grec, dans les céramiques attiques et italiote (440-300),” Revue des études Anciennes 101, no. 1-2 (1999): 37-63.
• 10Bacchic iconography is depicted on attic vases used during the Greek feast which is a moment of pleasure. It is also a world of men, where young women, hired for the night are parts of the entertainment. Thus, images of satyrs and maenads mirror the behavior of guests during the banquet. A great number of attic vases used during the Greek symposium displayed explicit erotic iconography that could be considered as pornographic. The figure of Eros, the son of Aphrodite is also associated with the image of the Greek feast and Dionysus in the Attic and Italiote imagery of the IV century BCE. See Martin F. Kilmer, Greek Erotica on Attic Red-Figure Vases, (London: Duckworth, 1993); Pascale Jacquet-Rimassa, “Autour du vin: pour un parcours dionysiaque” Pallas 90 (2013): 39-51.
• 11François Lissarague, “Faunes et satyres : triviales poursuites,” in Faune, fais-moi peur ! Images du faune de l’Antiquité à Picasso, ed. Ivone Papin-Drastik, (Paris : Silvana editoriale, 2018), 41.
• 12Francis Haskell, Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique. The lure of classical sculpture 1500- 1900 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1981), 301.
• 13Faun and satyrs could be considered belonging to the same universe because they are half-human and half-animal. Both mythological figures were close to the Olympian Gods but were living on earth, in the woods or in the mountains, in pastoral spaces, viewed as some kind of parallel universe being far away from the civilized cities. In the Ovid's Metamorphoses, they were described together as bucolic creatures. The confusion that associated fauns and satyrs, in the roman world in particular, is due to the desire to populate a fantasized world, between humans and animals, which existed on the margins of the urban world. Lissarague, ‘Faunes et satyres: triviales poursuites’, 41.
• 14Anne L. Poulet, Clodion Teracottas in North American Collections,(New York: The Frick Collection, 1984); Haskell and Penny,Taste and the Antique, 302.
• 15Indeed, in 1704 Maffei wrote “people who understand art have recognized in them the utmost perfection of craftsmanship”. Stefano Ferrari, Nicoletta Ossanna Cavadini, J.J. Winckelmann ( 1717 – 1768), Monumenti antichi inedita. Storia di un’opera illustrate (Milan: Skira, 2017), 141; Haskell and Penny, Taste and the Antique.
• 16Andrea Mantegna, Maerten van Heemskerck, Pietro da Cortona, Annibale Carracci have exploited this subject matter.
• 17Philippe Morel “ Ménades et nymphes bachiques dans l’art des XVII et XVIIIe siècles” in Bacchanales modernes ! Le nu, l’ivresse et la danse dans l’art français du XIX e siècle, ed. Sandra Buratti-Hasan and Sara Vitacca, (Milan: Silvana editoriale, 2016), 31.
• 18Anne L. Poulet, Clodion ; Anne L. Poulet. “On the Run. Clodion’s Bacchanalian Figures,” in French Art of the Eighteenth Century. The Michael L. Rosenberg Lecture Series at the Dallas Museum of Art, ed. Heather MacDonald (Dallas: Museum of Art, 2016), 170-179.
• 19Anne Poulet, Clodion; Anne Poulet. “On the Run. Clodion’s Bacchanalian Figures.”
• 20Titian had already opened the way with the figure of the reclining bacchante in the Bacchanal of the Andrians from 1523-1526 preserved at the Prado. Philippe Morel, “Ménades et nymphes bachiques dans l’art des XVII et XVIIIe siècles”.
• 21This is the case in Poussin’s Nymph with Satyrs from the National Gallery in London where the satyrs are discovering the female figure sleeping. The erotic content is obvious, yet its formal expression remains refined.
• 22The nymph also recalls the reclining Venus of Giorgione or Titian.
• 23“ In classical antiquity, nymphs were female nature deities categorized according to their preferred dwellings: Nerieds (sea), Naiads (rivers), Napae ( valleys), Dryads ( forests), Hamadryads (trees), and Oreads ( mountains). While this taxonomy remained more or less stable, other aspects turned out to be more elusive and fuzzy. Also, classical sources are notoriously vague concerning the nymphs. In the representations of nymphs in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, eroticism and sexuality always play an important part. The nymphs are meant to stimulate the erotic imagination of the reader. Moreover, as the love interest of gods, they figure as targets of male desire, and more often than not, of sexual violence. However, not all modern nymphs can be traced to Ovid or to identifiable classical sources and as indicated above there was no authoritative definition of the nymph. […] Yet while the early modern period already accepted a certain fluidity of the notion of nymph, modern scholarship has not always been helpful in discerning nymphs from (young) women in general. […]. In the seventeenth century, antiquarians began to put together archaeology, literature and folklore in order to lay the groundwork for a comparative study of religion that would shed a light on nymph cult. In the eighteenth century, they could represent an unbridled sexuality, the art uncovering the nymph making them available to the viewer’s desirous gaze.” Anita Traininger and Karl A.E. Enenkel, “Introduction: the figure of the nymph in early modern culture,” in The figure of the nymph in early modern culture (Boston: Brill Leiden, 2018),1.
• 24For the definitions of the maenad and bacchante which are figures attached to the mythic world of Bacchus, see note 6.
• 25“ On appelloit Baccantes , non-seulement les Nymphes qui élevèrent Bacchus dans sa jeunesse, & qui le suivirent dans son expedition des Indes; mais aussi celles qui depuis ce tems-là furent les prêtresses de ce dieu. On les apelloit aussi Menades ou furieuses, à cause des cérémonies étranges qu’elles faisoient dans leurs fêtes, où elles sautoient , dansoient, alloient toutes échevelées , & faisoient des contorsions extraordinaires, & des actions violentes, jusqu’à tuer ceux qu’elles rencontroient, & porter leurs têtes en sautant.». Dom Bernard de Montfaucon, L’Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures, vol. I, part. II, (Paris : 1722), 251.
• 26“Nous avons déjà donné ci-devant plusieurs Baccantes en la compagnie de Bacchus, & nous en verrons encore dans les Orgies. On les voit quelquefois seules et quelques fois en compagnie d’autre Baccants, avec des Faunes, des Silenes et des satyres. Elles portent souvent à la tête les mêmes ornemens que Bacchus, des couronnes de lierre ou de vigne." Montfaucon, 251.
• 27“Les satyres, les Silenes, les Faunes, les Pans, & les Silvains sont souvent confondus. Il n’y a pas une de ces espèces à qui différens auteurs ne donnent des cornes, des oreilles de chèvre, la queue, les cuisses, les pieds & les jambes du même animal. Les sculpteurs & les graveurs les représentent tres differemement. Plusieurs ont toutes ces parties de la chèvre sans exception : d’autres, en assez grand nombre, n’ont point les cornes, & ont tout le reste : on en trouve assez souvent qui ont toute la forme humaine, hors la queue & les oreilles, quelquefois ils n’ont point la queue. Quoiqu’il n’y ait pas de marque sure pour distinguer les Faunes des Satyres, on prend plus ordinairement […] pour Satyres, ceux qui ont, outres les oreilles et la queue, les cornes, les cuisses et les pieds du même animal ou quelquefois les cornes seulement : d’autrefois sans cornes, les cuisses et les pieds de chevre.” Montfaucon, 261-262.
• 28“C’étoient de grands sauteurs & de grands danseurs que les Faunes & les Satyres. Celui que nous donnons ici paroit être dans une grande agitation.[…] Les Faunes étoient des ravisseurs de Nymphes. En voici un qui emporte une Nymphe ou une Dryade, qu’il a mise sur une épaule”. Montfaucon, 267.
• 29Dom Bernard de Montfaucon,L’Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures, vol. II, part. I, (Paris, F. Delaulne : 1722), 193. This volume also presents the Gods of the Greeks and Romans along with customs of everyday life of the Ancients and displays images of temples along with model of architecture for bridges and war devices.
• 30In Bacchus and Ariadne, the hairstyle of the bacchante with the blue drapery holding a tambourine, recalls the hairstyle of the bacchante on the left-hand side of the group of the Satyr and Two Nymps of the Columbia Sculptures. The lock of wavy hair falling on one shoulder and the vine leaves crown looks similar.
• 31Bacchic subject matters were a particularly popular topic for the artists of the eighteenth century. Fragonard and Michel Dorigny made a series of paintings and etchings on the topic. Jean-Philippe Caresme is one the specialist of the representation of bacchanalia. Regarding the relationship of the Bacchic characters, it is also interesting to think about the theme of Pan chasing Syrinx, already studied by Poussin in the seventeenth century and later exploited by Michel Dorigny or Jean-Philippe Caresme. Clodion sculpted a relief of Pan and Syrinx for the bathroom of the Hotel de Bensenval which in terms of composition could also echo Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne. The male is in a dominant position, chasing the female character who is escaping in nature representing the love pursuit.
• 32Among the treatises that Clodion could have consulted Anne Poulet also quotes the Icones et Segmenta by François Perrier published in Paris in 1645, the Comte de Caylus Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grecques et romaines published in Paris in 1752, the Dictionnaire iconologique, ou Introduction à la connoissance des peintures, sculptures, etc., avec des Descriptions tirées des Poètes anciens & modernes by Lacombe de Prezel, published in Paris in 1756 or Le pitture antiche d'Ercolano e contorni incise con qualche spiegazione first published by the Accademia Ercolanese di Archeologia in Naples from 1757. Anne Poulet, Clodion.