An Italian patinated bronze model of the Pompeiian Dancing Faun

An Italian patinated bronze model of the Pompeiian Dancing Faun, late 19th century, after the Roman original excavated in 1830, portrayed in ecstatic dance, with hands raised, with an oak and acorn wreath around his horned head, his tail issuing behind him, on a rectangular base

31cm high overall

CATALOGUE NOTES:

The Roman version unearthed in 1830 is almost certainly a copy of an earlier Greek bronze. The Pompeiian example acquired instant fame, largely because of its completeness, small size, and the rarity of surviving bronzes. Indeed, the excavated house in which it was discovered was named after it - the House of the Faun

The Dancing Faun soon became a favourite subject for reproduction, aimed at the modest gardens and interiors of aspiring aesthetes. Another feature attractive to the refined tastes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was the fact that the faun seemed to be joyous rather than drunk