This marble sculpture is located in the Louvre Museum. It was found in Rome in 1630.
This website (
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"Cette statue, découverte à Rome en 1630, est une réplique d'un groupe disparu du IIème siècle avant Jésus-Christ, probablement en bronze. L'original est connu grâce à des pièces de monnaie de Cyzique, ancienne ville d'Asie Mineure située dans l'actuelle Turquie, et à de nombreuses autres répliques. Le satyre dansant devait convier à une danse une Nymphe assise en face de lui. Les meilleures copies permettent de reconstituer le geste exact des bras qui sont restaurés. Le satyre claquait des doigts pour battre la mesure et marquait la cadence au moyen d'un kropézion (castagnettes) avec son pied droit. Les jambes ainsi que le tronc de l'arbre et les cymbales sont également des restaurations.
La statue a été acquise par Louis XIV auprès du cardinal de Mazarin, en 1665. Elle a décoré le Jardin des Tuileries puis le bosquet de la Girandole au Château de Versailles, avant de rejoindre les collections du Musée du Louvre.
Les satyres, créatures des bois possédant certaines caractéristiques animales comme les oreilles pointues, les jambes de cheval, les sabots et les petites cornes sur la tête, accompagneront les Ménades durant les cérémonies dionysiaques. Ils descendaient des cinq filles d'Hécatéros qui avait épousé une princesse argienne fille du roi Phoronée. Les Oréades, leurs soeurs, seront connues pour leurs appétits et leur dévergondage. Symbole de fertilité spontanée de la nature sauvage, ils poursuivront les Nymphes qui leur permettront de satisfaire leurs appétits. Les auteurs représentent les Satyres, comme les Silènes, avec des figures comiques. Les poètes tragiques prendront l'habitude de clore le festival de Dionysos par des comédies légères à la suite d'une trilogie retraçant l'un des grands drames mythologiques."
which Google translates as:
"The statue, discovered in Rome in 1630, is a replica of a group disappeared from the second century BC, probably bronze. The original is known from coins of Cyzicus, ancient city of Asia Minor located in what is now Turkey, and many other replicas. The dancing satyr was invited to a dance a nymph sitting opposite him. The best copies possible to reconstruct the exact gesture of the arms that are restored. The satyr snapped his fingers to the beat and the rhythm marked by a kropézion (castanets) with his right foot. The legs and the trunk of the tree and the cymbals are also restorations.
The statue was acquired by Louis XIV to Cardinal Mazarin, in 1665. She decorated the Tuileries Gardens and the grove of Girandole at Versailles, before joining the collections of the Louvre Museum.
The satyrs, woodland creatures with certain animal characteristics such as pointed ears, legs of horse hooves and small horns on his head, will accompany the Dionysian maenads during ceremonies. They descended the five girls who had married a Hécatéros Argive princess daughter of King Phoroneus. The goddesses, their sisters, are known for their appetites and their shamelessness. Spontaneous fertility symbol of the wilderness, they pursued the nymphs that will enable them to satisfy their appetites. The authors represent the Satyrs, the Sileni as with comic figures. The tragic poets will acquire the habit of closing the festival of Dionysus in light comedies in the wake of a trilogy depicting one of the great mythological dramas."
Wikipedia (
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"...are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains.[2] In myths they are often associated with pipe-playing.
The satyrs' chief was Silenus, a minor deity associated (like Hermes and Priapus) with fertility. These characters can be found in the only complete remaining satyr play, Cyclops, by Euripides, and the fragments of Sophocles' Ichneutae (Tracking Satyrs). The satyr play was a short, lighthearted tailpiece performed after each trilogy of tragedies in Athenian festivals honoring Dionysus. There is not enough evidence to determine whether the satyr play regularly drew on the same myths as those dramatized in the tragedies that preceded. The groundbreaking tragic playwright Aeschylus is said to have been especially loved for his satyr plays, but none of them have survived.
Attic painted vases depict mature satyrs as being strongly built with flat noses, large pointed ears, long curly hair, and full beards, with wreaths of vine or ivy circling their balding heads. Satyrs often carry the thyrsus: the rod of Dionysus tipped with a pine cone.
Satyrs acquired their goat-like aspect through later Roman conflation with Faunus, a carefree Italic nature spirit of similar characteristics and identified with the Greek god Pan. Hence satyrs are most commonly described in Latin literature as having the upper half of a man and the lower half of a goat, with a goat's tail in place of the Greek tradition of horse-tailed satyrs; therefore, satyrs became nearly identical with fauns. Mature satyrs are often depicted in Roman art with goat's horns, while juveniles are often shown with bony nubs on their foreheads."
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