Reevaluating Cupid and Pan : the story of Eros and the Satyr in the Farnese Gallery

Abstract

The medallion titled Cupid and Pan is one of eight bronze-like medallions rendered all'antica and painted in fresco on the illusionistic Farnese Gallery ceiling, which is crowded with images. It is set among images of painted Classical statues that look like pairs of same-sex lovers from antiquity, pairs of ignudi and satyrs, all of which are arranged around thirteen paintings, set in quadratura, with fictive gold and silver frames so that they look like pictures! These ' pictures' portray gods, goddesses, heroes, nymphs, and mythological creatures, all of which are engaged in acts of heterosexual, pederastic, or homosexual love, evoking a Platonic conception of Classical love. The work was rendered between 1597 and 1601 by the Bolognese painter Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), who was assisted by his painter and engraver brother Agostino Carracci (1557-1602), who left Rome before the unveiling of the ceiling on June 2, 1601.