1899
oil on canvas
124 х 106,3

The image of Pan, ancient Greek god of forests and pastures, patron of shepherds, reflects symbolism's interest in creatures of dual nature. Pan in Greek means all-pervading, omnipresent. With his ugly appearance as a fur-coated man with goat's horns and hooves, Pan sent people "panicking" if they dared to disturb him. At the same time, Pan is a merry god, a companion of playful nymphs, the legendary creator of the pipe, the first musical instrument. He fashioned it from the cane, in which was turned the nymph Syrinx, who rejected the love of the goat-like god. Vrubel's "Pan" looks more like a Russian leshy, with the artist using its image to express the soul of dusky northern nature in an attempt to capture "the most intimate national note". The appearance of Vrubel's subject has nothing frightening; he seems to have sprung from the roots of an old tree in order to sit on a stump and play his pipes. For the artist, Pan is an embodiment of sensitive, poetic soul. Listening to the rustling of the forest at night, murmuring of a brook, whispering of leaves, he draws in all the sounds and vibrations in order to give them voice in his sad plain tunes.

at 10, Lavrushinsky Lane, Hall 32