The ''Dancing Satyr'' of

Mazara del Vallo Mazara del Vallo (; ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Trapani, southwestern Sicily, Italy. It lies mainly on the left bank at the mouth of the Mazaro river. It is an agricultural and fishing centre and its port gives shelter to the ...

is an over-lifesize Greek bronze statue, whose refinement and ''rapprochement'' with the manner of

Praxiteles Praxiteles (; el, Πραξιτέλης) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attica sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubita ...

has made it a subject of discussion. It is an example of a dancing satyr, a sculptural archetype in

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

and

Roman art The art of Ancient Rome, and the territories of its Republic and later Empire, includes architecture, painting, sculpture and mosaic work. Luxury objects in metal-work, gem engraving, ivory carvings, and glass are sometimes considered to be min ...

. Another well-known example is the Faun from the

House of the Faun The House of the Faun ( it, Casa del Fauno), constructed in the 2nd century BC during the Samnite period (180 BC), was a grand Hellenistic palace that was framed by peristyle in Pompeii, Italy. The historical significance in this impressive est ...

, Pompeii.

Style and details

Though the satyr is missing both arms, one leg, and its separately-cast tail (originally fixed in a surviving hole at the base of the spine), its head and torso are remarkably well-preserved despite two millennia spent at the bottom of the sea. The satyr is depicted in mid-leap, head thrown back ecstatically and back arched, his hair swinging with the movement of his head. The facture is highly refined; the whites of his eyes are alabaster inlays. Though some have dated it to the 4th century BCE and said it was an original work by

or a faithful copy,Paolo Moreno (2003). it is more securely dated either to the

period of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, or possibly to the Roman "Atticising" phase in the early 2nd century CE. A high percentage of lead in the bronze alloy suggests its being made in Rome itself.

Rediscovery and display

The torso was recovered from the sandy sea floor at a depth of off the southwestern coast of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, on the night of March 4, 1998, in the nets of the same fishing boat (operating from

, hence the sculpture's name) that had in the previous year recovered the sculpture's left leg. Other well-known underwater finds of Greek bronzes have been retrieved from the Aegean and

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

seas, generally from shipwreck sites: the

Antikythera mechanism The Antikythera mechanism ( ) is an Ancient Greek hand-powered orrery, described as the oldest example of an analogue computer used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance. It could also be used to track the four-yea ...

, the '' Antikythera Ephebe'' and the portrait head of a

Stoic Stoic may refer to: * An adherent of Stoicism; one whose moral quality is associated with that school of philosophy * STOIC, a programming language * ''Stoic'' (film), a 2009 film by Uwe Boll * ''Stoic'' (mixtape), a 2012 mixtape by rapper T-Pain * ...

discovered by sponge-divers at Antikythera in 1900, the

Mahdia shipwreck The shipwreck of Mahdia was found by Greek sponge fishermen off the coast of Tunisia in June 1907. The shipwreck near the modern town of Mahdia is dated about the 80s BC, or even later. In a series of underwater campaigns numerous items were rec ...

off the coast of Tunisia, 1907; the ''

Marathon Boy The Marathon Boy or Ephebe of Marathon is a Greek bronze sculpture found in the Aegean Sea in the bay of Marathon in 1925. The sculpture is conserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens where it is dated to around 340–330 BC. The ...

'' off the coast of Marathon, 1925; the standing ''

Poseidon of Cape Artemision The Artemision Bronze (often called the God from the Sea) is an ancient Greek sculpture that was recovered from the sea off Cape Artemision, in northern Euboea, Greece. According to most scholars, the bronze represents Zeus, the thunder-god and ...

'' found off Cape Artemision in northern Euboea, 1926; the ''horse'' and ''Rider'' found off Cape Artemision, 1928 and 1937; the '' Getty Victorious Youth'' found off

Fano Fano is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort southeast of Pesaro, located where the '' Via Flaminia'' reaches the Adriatic Sea. It is the third city in the region by po ...

on the Adriatic coast of Italy; the

Riace bronzes The ''Riace bronzes'' (Italian: ''Bronzi di Riace'', ), also called the Riace Warriors, are two full-size Greek bronzes of naked bearded warriors, cast about 460–450 BC that were found in the sea in 1972 near Riace, Calabria, in southern ...

, found in 1972; and the '' Apoxyomenos'' recovered from the sea off the

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

n island of

Lošinj Lošinj (; it, Lussino; vec, Lusin, earlier ''Osero''; german: Lötzing; la, Apsorrus; grc, Ἄψορρος) is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, in the Kvarner Gulf. It is almost due south of the city of Rijeka and part of the P ...

in 1999. Restoration at the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Rome, included a steel armature so that the statue can be displayed upright. When first displayed to the public after conservation (in the Chamber of Deputies in Rome, from 31 March to 2 June 2003), it was hailed as the finest new discovery in Italian waters since the Riace bronzes were found in 1972. On 12 July 2003 it returned to Mazara del Vallo, where it is on permanent display in the ''Museo del Satiro'' in the church of Sant'Egidio. There, it is provided with an anti-seismic base, to secure it against tremors in this earthquake zone. From 23 March to 28 June 2007 it toured to the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

for their Praxiteles exhibition, and an associated Louvre interactive installation, "Connaître la forme" ("Know your form"), displayed a replica of it lit in various ways to demonstrate the importance of lighting in displaying a sculpture.

Notes

References

* ''Praxitèle'', catalogue of the exhibition at the Louvre Museum, 23 March-28 June 2007, Louvre editions & Somogy, 2007 (978-2-35031-111-1) ** Alain Pasquier, "Praxitèle aujourd'hui ? La question des originaux", pp. 86–88, ** Jean-Luc Martinez, "Les Satyres de Praxitèle", cat. 72, pp. 284–291. * Paolo Moreno, "Satiro di Prassitele", ''Il Satiro danzante. Camera dei Deputati, 1 aprile–2 giugno 2003'', exhibition catalogue Milan, 2003, pp. 102–113. * Roberto Petriaggi (dir.), ''Il Satiro Danzante di Mazara del Vallo, il Restauro e l'Immagine'', proceedings of the conference held at the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Rome, June 3–4, 2003, Electa, Naples, 2005. * Claudio Parisi Presicce, "Il Satiro Mainomenos di Mazara del Vallo: un Possibile Contesto Originario", ''Sicilia Archaeologica'' 36 (2003), pp. 25–40.

External links

Il Satiro a Mazara del Vallo
(Italian)
"The Dancing Satyr— A lost bronze by Praxiteles?

An article in English about the Dancing Satyr

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dancing Satyr Of Mazara Del Vallo 1st-millennium BC sculptures 1st-millennium sculptures 1998 archaeological discoveries Archaeological discoveries in Italy Hellenistic and Roman bronzes Mazara del Vallo Art of Magna Graecia Nude sculptures Satyrs

Style and details

Rediscovery and display

See also

Notes

References

External links