Frame Close Up

Remarque

Description of this Artwork

Inspired by The Sleeping Satyr Statue on display in Munich.

The statue represents, at first glance, a youth asleep in a provocative posture, but who turns out to be a satyr, recognizable only close-up by his pointed ears and animal-skin rug. The satyr is lying in a rocky setting, and we are to suppose he had fallen asleep drunk in the woods. His slumped, sprawling body looks relaxed, natural, open and straight forward. His languid pose, with one arm crooked back behind the head, conventionally signaled fatigue or sleep, often suggesting the lassitude after lovemaking. Though the erotic appeal of this figure has often been noted, in so thoroughly bisexual a culture its meaning would have shifted depending on the observer. A female viewer might read in it a desirable heterosexual partner, while a male viewer could see either an object of homosexual attraction or an opportunity to identify with another virile male relaxing after successful conquest of some nymph.