"Dancing Faun"
"Dancing Faun", bronze sculpture with a brown patina shaded with green resting on a rectangular molded base, reproducing the work discovered in Pompeii in 1830. Height: 81 cm. Base: 26.8 cm. X 28.4 cm. Circa 1900. The House of the Faun is one of the largest and most luxurious residences in Pompeii. Built in the Samnite period (3rd, 2nd century BC), it was renovated twice in the 2nd century BC. The decoration of the residence as a whole constitutes a fine example of what is called the first Pompeian style, and its architecture achieves the harmonious fusion of Hellenistic palace models and the traditional Roman "domus". In this residence appear numerous decorative themes including the Dionysian theme in which the owners, perhaps the Satrii, would have given the representation of their mythical origin. The tragic masks, thus present in the sets, evoke the world of the theater whose origin is linked to Dionysios. Other decorative elements were dedicated to this divinity, such as the statue of the "Dancing Faun," to which the house owes its name, a work that originally adorned the northern end of the impluvium in the atrium. The original is preserved in the Museum of Naples.