Italian school of the Grand Tour of the 19th century.

"Dancing Faun". Italian School of the Grand Tour, XIX century
Patinated bronze on a reddish marble base.
The present piece, cast with precision and balanced in its movement, maintains the elegant and festive spirit of the original. The reddish marble base reinforces its presentation as a cabinet object.
Provenance: Georges Savès Collection (1908-1985)
Measurements: 25 cm (total height); base: 2.3 × 6 × 6 cm (2.3 × 6 × 6 cm)

Replica of the famous "Dancing Faun of Pompeii", this figure in patinated bronze represents a young satyr in full movement, with his arms raised and one leg forward in a dynamic and theatrical gesture. The faun - a figure from Greco-Roman mythology associated with wine, music and Bacchic debauchery - is here captured in a moment of grace and lightness, with an exalted face and hair in movement, conveying vitality and sensual pleasure.
The original sculpture was found in the House of the Faun in Pompeii in 1830, and became one of the most reproduced images during the 19th century, at the height of the European cultural tourism boom. As part of the Grand Tour phenomenon, the enlightened classes commissioned pieces like this one to collect as symbols of classical scholarship and aesthetic refinement. The bronze versions were especially valued for their material fidelity to ancient statuary and their lasting quality.

This piece comes from the collection of Georges Savès (1908-1985), a French numismatist and collector with a deep vocation for archaeological study. Heir to a family tradition of collecting, he devoted himself fully from the 1950s to historical and numismatic research, especially on Toulouse and Gallic coins. Throughout his life, he assembled an eclectic collection of archaeological, ethnographic and artistic pieces, enriched in 1966 with the acquisition of part of the Roger Bédiat collection. Author of specialized studies, his legacy remains a reference in the academic and patrimonial fields.