Daphnis en Chloë leiden een bok als offer aan Pan 1937

Aristide Maillol made this woodcut, Daphnis en Chloë leading a goat as an offering to Pan, and you can see the hand of the artist in the stark black and white contrasts. It’s like he's carving away at our assumptions about form. Look at the way the figures emerge from the dark ground, their outlines defining them. The texture, or lack of it, focuses the eye, giving the whole scene a dreamlike quality. See how the negative space, that clean white paper, shapes their bodies and creates movement? It's as if he’s asking us to consider what's there as much as what isn't. Maillol was a sculptor, and you can see that here. In this print he uses line in a sculptural way, to give weight to the forms, to suggest the curve of muscle. The simplicity of form echoes that of Gauguin and the Pont-Aven school, but Maillol brings his own earthy sensuality to the image. Ultimately, Maillol leaves us to find our own resolution.