Piping Pan
ca. 1882, cast 1914
Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
43 1/4 x 12 x 19 1/4 in. (109.9 x 30.5 x 48.9 cm)
Classification
Sculpture
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1914
Accession Number
14.119
Tags
About this artwork
This graceful sculpture depicts Pan, the Greek god of shepherds, nature, and rustic music, shown in a contemplative moment with his traditional panpipes. Created circa 1882 by Louis St. Gaudens, brother of the celebrated Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and cast in bronze in 1914, the work demonstrates the American Beaux-Arts movement's engagement with classical mythology and academic figure sculpture. Pan occupied a significant place in late nineteenth-century artistic imagination, representing untamed ...