Lorem ipsum dolor
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
h 20 cm
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
h 20 cm
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
h 20 cm
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
The only eighty centimetres high statue of the Dancing Faun never ceases to astonish the viewer. It is over two thousand years old, yet it gives us the illusion of having just come out of the furnace.
From a technical point of view, the depiction of the extremely sinuous musculature is masterful; the refined nature of the execution suggests that the work is attributable to a Hellenistic centre of production, probably Alexandrian.
Every angle reveals the dynamic movements of the Dancing Faun who hypnotically and with a sense of lightness defies the laws of gravity.
The Romans associated the faun, a deity of the forest, with the Greek god Pan. Half goat-half man, this pleasure-loving divinity could almost always be found at the celebrations held in honour of Dionysus. However, he also craved the solitude of long and empty afternoons.
The essence of the goat-horned Dancing Faun is the pure and instinctive joy of living.
Light as the leap of a cat, completely carefree but not without an instinctive wisdom, this joy dances towards the light.
If we consider instinct to be that part of the soul which stretches out its oscillating roots into matter, the faun is that mythological creature involved in the instantaneous process of creation.
The faun brings our instinct to the surface through dance and music.
This is written all over the statue without needing the use of words. We spontaneously read the Faun’s message, contemplating his flexing muscles, upwardly contorting torso and rising arms. The movement captured in this small bronze statue conveys jubilation. Nothing but Joie-de-vivre.
The Dancing Faun or SATYROI (Satyrs) were rustic fertility spirits of the countryside and wilds. They consorted with the Nymphai(Nymphs) and were companions of the gods Dionysos, Hermes, Hephaistos, Pan, Rhea-Kybele and Gaia.
Faun were depicted as animalistic men with asinine ears, pug noses, reclining hair-lines, the tails of horses and erect members. As companions of Dionysos they were usually shown drinking, dancing, playing flutes and sporting with the Mainades (Maenads).
Actors dressed as Satyroi formed the choruses of the so-called Satyr-plays which were performed at the festivals of the god Dionysos.
PAN was the god of shepherds and hunters, and of the meadows and forests of the mountain wilds. His unseen presence aroused panic in those who traversed his realm.
Pan idled in the rugged countryside of Arkadia (Arcadia), playing his panpipes and chasing Nymphs. One of these, Pitys, fled his advances and was transformed into a mountain-pine, the god’s sacred tree.
Pan was depicted as a man with the horns, legs and tail of a goat, a thick beard, snub nose and pointed ears. He often appears in scenes of the company of Dionysos.
SEILENOS (Silenus) was the old rustic god of wine-making and drunkenness. He was the foster-father of the god Dionysos who was entrusted to his care by Hermes after his birth from the thigh of Zeus.
The young god was raised by Seilenos and nursed by the Nysiadnymphs in a cave on Mount Nysa. He was the father or grandfather of the tribes of Satyroi (Satyrs) and Nymphs. He was sometimes multiplied into a triad or large band of Seilenoi (Silens).
Seilenos was depicted as a jovial old man, hairy and balding, with a pot-belly, snub-nose, and the ears and tail of an ass. He rode in the train of Dionysos seated on the back of a donkey.
Fusce at nulla in ex volutpat pharetra. Nam fringilla imperdiet augue, sit amet placerat lacus eleifend ac. Mauris condimentum nisi massa, consequat malesuada lectus euismod ut. Nam quis sodales lectus. Nam commodo congue eros eu pulvinar.
Fusce at nulla in ex volutpat pharetra. Nam fringilla imperdiet augue, sit amet placerat lacus eleifend ac. Mauris condimentum nisi massa, consequat malesuada lectus euismod ut. Nam quis sodales lectus. Nam commodo congue eros eu pulvinar.
“Among all the arts, I do not know… of arts more noble than those which require fire… they propose once more the serried struggle between man and form. Their essential element, fire, is also their greatest enemy. It is an element of fearful precision”.
Paul Valery
Each manufacture is obtained thanks to the lost wax investment casting technique (realized on casts of Chiurazzi Foundry which used Greek and Roman originals casts preserved at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, Musei Vaticani, Musei Capitolini and Museo Borghese in Rome, Palazzo Pitti, Galleria degli Uffizi and Museo Nazionale in Florence), refined then by the hands of a master chaser.
The chance, unique in the history, to create casts from works of such important museums, gave the chance to the Chiurazzi Foundry to have a gallery of around 1.500 plaster casts of classical sculptures – from Doriforo to Discobolo, from Ercole Farnese to Laocoonte, from various Venuses to imperial statues, from Hellenic busts discovered in Ercolano to every kind of objects coming from Pompeii and so on –, Renaissance and modern (from Michelangelo’s Mosè to Cellini’s Perseo, from Bernini’s masterpieces to Canova’s)…
The creative process of the bronzes is the same Egyptians and Chinese used already 4 thousand years ago: after having obtained a heat-resistant cast of the original manufacture, it is covered with a layer of silicone gum that takes the shape of the original. The wax model is closed in a mould, in which a system of casting canals and air valves is formed. Through heating, the wax melts and leaves space for cart bronze. Once the bronzes get colder, and the mould is broken, they undergo a first sandblast. At this point, the artist starts to work with burins, files and chisels (in total a hundred of different instruments) to refine and put on relief all the smallest particulars. The last step is coating.
The Chiurazzi Foundry had three types of coating: the one so called “Pompei”, dark green; the “Ercolano” one, dark and uniform brown; and the “Moderna” one, lighter brown mixed to green.
This last stage of manufacturing, as all the others, requires a long experience and the knowledge of a very complicated technique, passed on from worker to worker, from generation to generation, among Naples chasers working for and with Gennaro Chiurazzi, his sons and nephews.
