Pan Reclining

Sir Peter Paul Rubens after Francesco da Sangallo

National Gallery of Art

Drawn with red and black chalk on cream-colored paper, a satyr has a man’s muscular upper body and the legs of a goat as he lies sprawled on his back across the width of this horizontal sheet. He lies with his head to our right and hooves to our left. His right arm, farther from us, is flung over his head and with that hand, he touches the sheep’s skin on which he reclines. The sheep’s head rests near the satyr’s shoulder. The satyr’s eyes are blank under lowered, deeply furrowed brows. His nose is bumped over the bridge and pointed at the end. His full lips are open to reveal his tongue and lower teeth over a cleft chin. A mustache or goatee is loosely drawn, and hollows in his cheeks suggest high cheekbones. A wine skin, like an oversized hot water bottle, is tucked under the hollow of his lower back. His left arm, closer to us, lies along the side of his body, and he holds a pan flute in that brawny hand. He has the furry haunches of a goat, and his legs are splayed so his hooves reach into the upper and lower left corners of the sheet. A grapevine with a few clusters of fruit curls behind his lower limbs and meanders across the background. Gray washes and sketchy lines are layered behind the vine. A tiny uppercase “R” appears to be penned near the lower right corner. Lower in that corner, a round stamp has a crown over an uppercase “W” above the letters “JCR.”