Young Lady as Bacchante

This miniature by Johann Julius Heinsius¹ beautifully exemplifies how ancient motifs, which had inspired artists since the Renaissance, served to give a serious character to erotic representations.² A young lady with bare upper body embraces the neck of an ancient statue probably representing Pan with her left arm while she drapes vine branches over his breast. Pan, the Greek god of shepherds, was represented with goat’s legs and horns. His instrument, the panpipes, goes back to a nymph called Syrinx whose voice he wanted to imitate by playing on reeds. Since “pan” also means everything, he came to embody all-encompassing nature.
J. S. O.