Pan and Syrinx

This commotion of dark splotches of wash and scribbled lines is an exquisite study of light and shadow. Fleeing the lusty satyr Pan, the nymph Syrinx was trapped at a river’s edge and begged her father, the river-god Ladon, and her two sisters (shown in the foreground) to rescue her. Just as Pan grasped her, she was transformed into reeds, leaving him with only the sound of the wind blowing through the reeds, which inspired him to make his pipes. Here, Syrinx’s transformation has begun, described in fluid pen strokes that elongate her hands and rise around her head. The fiery, rapid handling and uninhibited messiness suggest this drawing was a personal exercise in creative exploration. Although the name Trevisani is inscribed on the sheet by a later hand, the work is more likely by the 18th-century Mantuan artist Giuseppe Bazzani. An idiosyncratic designer, Bazzani favored dreamlike settings with gracefully posed figures arranged bizarrely in the composition and often partially obscured by mounds of earth or a vaporous atmosphere.