Nymph and satyr

Half man half horse (or later goat), satyrs are lovers of wine, women and song who honoured Silenus, the minor Greek god of fertility. In Roman mythology, Silenus was displaced by Bacchus, hence the term ‘bacchanalia’, which came to mean almost any drunken revelry involving a large cast of satyrs and nymphs. Artists across the centuries, from Titian to the French sculptor Jules Dalou (1838–1902), depicted bacchanalia with gusto. The theme provided a good excuse for nudity under the veil, so to speak, of classicism. Dalou used this age-old subject matter in a modern, unbeautiful way, showing a tangle of interlocking limbs and conveying the ferocity of the embrace. There are close overlaps with the contorted and tormented forms of his more famous contemporary Auguste Rodin’s Gates of Hell figures. Traditionally, the couple were interpreted as lovers enjoying their abandonment: a raunchy Valentine’s theme, perhaps. The angle at which Te Papa’s bronze statuette was photographed seems to confirm this, as the nymph sinks into the satyr’s embrace. But when the satyr is viewed frontally, she pushes her hands into his chest in resistance. But she can’t – or won’t – step away. The ambiguity between love and lust gives this sculpture a physical and emotional complexity.

Sourced from: http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2015/02/12/art-for-valentines-day/