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Nymphs and Satyr
The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 Nymphs and Satyr2005-08-18 11:40
2 comments
picture
by Flemming Funch

by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1873. Bigger here


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2 comments

7 Oct 2005 @ 15:46 by rayon : Trying to see the meaning
in a lovely painting, a couple of things can be said. 1873 was late in a huge Gothic revival in French art (Violet le Duc, architect) (Pugin Houses of Parliament, Angleterre) at this time the Impressionists were budding and the French Government decided to sponsor Classical type art to revive the national spirit or something. They thought this would be more suitable to large public gatherings for the admiration of art, etc, to which they had become accustomed many years ago. Nevertheless it, despite government sponsorship, is still a fine piece, dispensing delight which because of its nature is uplifting in its own right. In terms of meaning, this can be twofold: a play on the greatest drama, love - the nymphs beckoning sweetly the utterly unsofisticated satyr, a hint of bettering mere animal instinct, a tug at the psyche, to move on; and, the playing out of masculine and feminine principals being the basis of all life, set in Arcadia (land of the oldest original peoples of Ancient Greece, the Pelasgoi), in other words emergent civilisation in playful consolidation but without punitive connotations of Gothic Revival.  

8 Oct 2005 @ 02:41 by ming : Nymphs
Ah, great analysis! And I can draw some enjoyment from living in a country where the government will sponsor art like that. The walls of the townhall in Toulouse is covered with a number of classical paintings from the same period, with plenty of innocent frollicking nudes.

I like that angle there, the beckoning of the unsophisticated animalistic satyr, to move on, to come out and play.  

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