Italian, Rome, or possibly French, circa 1800-1826

This elegant marble sculpture derives from the famous antique model, which was first recorded in 1638 in the Villa Borghese in Rome. The antique was purchased by Napoleon and transported to the musée du Louvre by 1815, where it remains until this day (Satyre jouant de la flute, inv. no. MA 595).

The model gained great popularity and was frequently reproduced, especially by Grand Tour travellers, in various media. The present version is of an impressive size, comparable to the original antique, and carved with notable sophistication. It was probably made in Rome by one of the many talented marble carvers employed in studios of leading Neoclassical sculptors including Bertel Thorvaldsen. The fact that the model never returned to Rome (as many did in 1815 thanks to the efforts of Antonio Canova), may perhaps indicate that the present marble was carved circa 1800 whilst the model was still in Italy.

The present statue was almost certainly acquired by Charles Kinnaird, 8th Lord Kinnaird, an important art collector and whig politician. He was highly educated, having studied at Eton, and the universities of Edinburgh, Cambridge, Glasgow and Geneva. According to Millar, 'From that time until the death of his father in 1805 he voted consistently with the Foxite whigs, and rendered valuable aid to the party in the repeated attacks made upon the Addington ministry' (op. cit.). Kinnaird was an Italophile, who was in Venice in 1805 when he learned of his father's death. He was a prolific art collector who assembled one of the great Scottish collections of antique statuary and pictures. Many of his paintings, which included works by Rubens, Titian and Poussin, had come from the collection of Philippe Égalité, duc d'Orléans. Towards the end of his life Kinnaird was exiled to Paris (though he subsequently had to flee after he insulted the Bourbon monarchy, calling them 'old women'). A French origin for the present marble thus cannot be excluded, although the carving is consistent with it being Italian.

RELATED LITERATURE

F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500-1900, London, 1982, pp. 212-213; Millar, A., & Matthew, H.  Kinnaird, Charles, eighth Lord Kinnaird of Inchture (1780–1826), politician and art collector. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 14 Jun. 2022, from https://www-oxforddnb-com.lonlib.idm.oclc.org/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-15632