Private collection, Europe
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1920

This distinctive Roman marble head of god Pan is sculpted from rosso antico, a fine grained, highly-compacted limestone ranging in color from a light red to a dark purple. He is depicted with prominent features including a long curly beard and moustache, a thick wavy hair, with the individual locks deeply drilled, the lidded unarticulated eyes deeply set under the furrowed brow with snub nose, parted lips and balding pate.

A remarkable aspect of this bust is the material in which it is sculptured, a reddish marble known by its Italian name of rosso antico. In Roman times such pieces were extremely expensive to produce because coloured marbles were not available locally on the Italian peninsula and had to be imported over long distances from places like Egypt. Therefore, this satyr head belongs to a select class of objects, undoubtedly commissioned by affluent individuals who could afford their substantial cost.

Pan was a rustic goat-god who was worshipped throughout the Greek and Roman world. His origins were in Arcadia, but he came to prominence in Athens in the early 5th century B.C. after his supposed encounter with the messenger Pheidippides on his famed Marathon run. His earliest depictions in art show him with a goat head joined to a human torso, with either goat or human legs. Later he has a bearded human head; the horns and tail are necessary for the attribution.

In Ancient Greece, a herma was a square or rectangular pillar of stone, terracotta, or bronze - the stipe - on which a bust was placed. Hermas of all types were much sought after by wealthy Romans to decorate their houses and villas and was used as a decorative adjunct in walls, pavements and architectural ornaments, they were often adorned with the busts of philosophers and eminences.

According to A. Cioffarelli (pp. 95-97 in M.L. Anderson and L. Nista, eds., Radiance in Stone: Sculptures in Colored Marble from the Museo Nazionale Romano), rosso antico is a fine grained, highly compacted limestone, ranging in color from a light red to a dark purple, and can include white calcite marks and striations. The stone was quarried in Taenarum, modern day Cape Matapan in the Peloponnese.