Sculptuur van een faun, naar Praxitiles, in de Capitolijnse Musea te Rome c. 1857 - 1875

This photograph, taken by James Anderson, captures a marble sculpture of a Faun in the Capitoline Museums in Rome, inspired by Praxitiles. The sculpture presents a figure of revelry and untamed nature, a being half-man, half-goat, embodying the wild, fertile spirit of the forest. Note the fig leaf, a recurring symbol of modesty. It's a motif echoing back to the story of Adam and Eve, signaling a hidden awareness of the body and its desires. But here, on the Faun, it appears almost playfully, hinting at the dance between innocence and earthly knowledge. From ancient Greece to Renaissance paintings, the echoes of such figures resound. They represent the human psyche's constant negotiation with primal instincts and refined sensibilities, reflecting our deeply embedded connection to the natural world. This cyclical progression resurfaces, evolves, and takes on new meanings in differing contexts.