Sculptuur van een faun in het Museo Nazionale te Napels 1857 - 1914

Curator: Standing before us is a photograph titled, "Sculptuur van een faun in het Museo Nazionale te Napels," or "Sculpture of a faun in the National Museum of Naples." The photograph, attributed to Giorgio Sommer, was taken sometime between 1857 and 1914. Editor: Whoa, he's…caught in a moment, isn't he? Off balance, maybe even startled. It feels more like a snapshot of raw emotion than some carefully posed, idealized sculpture. And is that a goat he’s cuddling, or trying to protect? Curator: The classical subject of a faun provides a lens to consider societal perceptions of nature, sexuality, and the "Other." Here we have a faun frozen in apparent revelry, yet removed from a wider, potentially disruptive Bacchanalian scene. Editor: Disruptive how? Is that playful joy or something darker brewing underneath? You know, the soft, almost dreamlike quality of the photography—it makes you think of secrets, or hidden desires coming to life. Curator: Precisely. The image complicates simple notions of classical beauty, allowing conversations about the body, desire, and power, filtered through historical lenses of orientalism and colonialism which categorized bodies—particularly racialized bodies—as hypersexual or savage. The faun, representing the wild, untamed parts of nature, is sexualized here and posed in a way that emphasizes its departure from typical academic representation. Editor: So, this photo kind of freezes him between worlds, then. Not quite human, not quite beast. Makes you wonder what kind of judgment he might be facing. Are we admiring him, fearing him, laughing at him? All of the above? Curator: And what the choices of Giorgio Sommer mean within a market geared to consumption, by visitors eager for an idealized classical beauty. This picture prompts consideration for contemporary questions around representation and identity as viewed through a colonial lens. Editor: Well, whatever it is, it makes you think. Kind of hard to just walk by and forget him, that startled little faun, caught between laughter and fear. He got me! Curator: Absolutely, and as such provides us an invaluable opportunity to discuss intersectional identity and our assumptions surrounding them.