My prior Art posts can be found HERE.
How do we move away from being a civilization that produces art that causes comments like, “my five year old could make this,” back to being one that creates beauty and inspires deep questions? We must reject modernity and embrace tradition. To embrace tradition, we must first learn about it.
Let’s study art history together.
Faun by Moonlight
| Artist | Léon Spilliaert |
|---|---|
| Year | 1900 |
| Medium | Washed India ink, brush, black chalk, and colored pencil on paper |
| Dimensions | 49 x 63 cm (approximately 19.3 x 24.8 inches) |
| Location | Private collection |
Léon Spilliaert was part of the symbolist / expressionism movement, and his mediums varied relatively far. He was a draughtsman, watercolorist, illustrator, painter, and graphic designer. His work is marked by its sense of gloominess, loneliness, or oppression (which sort of fits his known sources of inspiration – which include the works of Edgar Allen Poe and Friedrich Nietzsche.)
Faun by Moonlight is one of his earliest works, created around the time he dropped out of art school at the age of eighteen. The faun depicted in the work matches Christian iconography for the devil, being a hoof-footed humanoid with horns, and seeming to be trying to lure other creatures somewhere with music. However, the faun is usually associated with innocence. The goats are also typically linked in Christian iconography with the devil, which adds to the sense of symbolism in the piece (perfect for a Symbolist artist) but it’s notable here that the goats seem to be the innocent ones in some danger. In that way, the roles here appear to be inverted. These symbols along with the lack of color, the lack of life in the background landscape, and the cold moon above gives the piece a sense of foreboding. We don’t know for certain that the goats following the music-playing faun are in danger, but we sense it. Of course, we must also stop to ask if they are following at all. The goat nearest to the faun seems to be rearing up in opposition.
The piece can also be looked at through another lens. This feels a lot like an out-of-place scene from the verdant forested pagan Europe. If so, then perhaps what we are seeing is something else entirely. Maybe the faun by moonlight is reflective of a type of world that has died out (or is on the cusp of doing so) in Europe. If one views pagan Europe sympathetically, then this picture should be viewed as a tragedy rather than as something ominous or sinister.
The brilliance of the work is that the use of the symbols allows for a wide variety of interpretations.
Not surprisingly, this is a widely debated painting and the artist never explained it. I think it will be helpful to view a couple of interpretations to get a sense of the potential meanings.
What do you think is happening here?
