Striding Pan

Andrea Briosco, called Riccio

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The satyr stands upright and majestically strides forward. His powerfully muscled torso closely resembles Riccio’s heroic nudes, like the beggar in the Saint Martin relief in this gallery. He is most probably Pan, the satyr deity who reigns over the material world. Designed to stand on a scholar’s desk, he carried the attributes of a flaming conch-shell lamp and an ink-filled vase, perhaps symbolizing Pan’s dominion over the elements. Such pairings of figure and function are rare in Riccio’s work, but the extraordinary balance of the topheavy figure on just two small hooves is typical of Riccio’s technical mastery.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art