Glühwürmchen 

Franz von Stuck, painted "Glühwürmchen", or "Glow-worms", sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Von Stuck, a co-founder of the Munich Secession, was interested in exploring Symbolist themes that grappled with the darker aspects of the human psyche, as well as the seductive allure of the natural world. In this painting, the romanticism of nature is intertwined with the innocence of youth, but also a hint of the uncanny. The artist depicts two nude boys in a field at night, surrounded by the faint glow of fireflies. The figure on the left, with his goat legs, appears to be a hybrid creature, a faun-like boy, a figure deeply rooted in classical mythology, while the other child could simply be a young boy. This creates a tension between the familiar and the fantastical, the human and the animal. The image may evoke nostalgia for childhood summers and the magic of nature. But the inclusion of the faun-boy also introduces a sense of the wild, untamed aspects of human nature. The contrast between innocence and experience, the natural and the mythological, invites us to consider the complexities of identity and representation.