Barberini Faun: The Drunken Satyr, Essay Example

Analysis of Cultural Significance and Artistic Style

The Greek Satyr defines a male woodland creature that follows the dictation and direction of Dionysus, the God of wine and merriment. The sculpture presented herein is a representation of the said creature and is said to be a distinctive indication on how males and drunkenness is being viewed in the society during the time.

Believed to have been carved by an unknown sculptor during the Hellenistic period, this sculptor strongly represents the Greek belief on mythical creatures and how their behavior passes through the humanistic ideals of living. Relatively, as seen from the presentation, although Satyrs were considered extra ordinary, their attitude towards wine and other alcoholic beverages is just the same with that of humans. Like as if saying that wine is a more powerful tool that is able to contradict the defining definition between an ordinary mortal and a special creature such as that of the Satyr.

Noted to have been discovered in the 1920’s it was documented to have been first created during the early 1600’s. Restoration of the found sculpture was rather commissioned to be completed by Gianlorenzo Bernini. Nevertheless, the restoration did not hurt the indicative beauty, detail and the presentation of the statue hence not affecting its value for history, culture and art at the same time. Through the years, the redefinition of the sculpture from one generation to another has been considered to might have increased the sexual representation of the satyr naturally masking its real essence in defining how it is a representation of an extraordinary creature.

Instead of becoming an established form of religious and cultural representation of the major belief of Greeks on mythical creatures, some artists now coin it to be a representation of early erotic art. Basing from the origins of Greek art, nudity was nothing of an extraordinary form of art. However, it could be realized that some viewed this piece to be extraordinary especially in the aspect of focusing attention on the genitals of the satyr; a reason behind its being coined to be an erotic form of sculpture that further inspired other artists from different ages and generations to represent particular art works of their own in the form of the Barberini Faun.

Several copies have already been made of this particular sculpture and it now adorns several well-known establishments in Europe. Although almost losing its original course of reputation, the Barberini Faun is considered to be an example of the elegant sophistication of ancient art represented through details and forms that are odd enough to represent commonality, but are also direct enough to represent human reality behind the masks of mythical creatures that the sculpture itself represents. This form of sculpture thus reminds the current generation on how the ancient beliefs, religions and even thoughts have strongly affected how the human individuals view both mythology and the relation it has to actual human living. Representing the realities of drunkenness, the Barberini Faun almost define the drunken truth in a naked consideration of what happens when one over considers both the joy and the instigating effect of alcoholic beverages in their personal beings. To some other spectators, the same sculpture represents human nature as it redefines the value of human sexuality as a form of art.