Item from Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
A marble faun caught mid-leap, pipes raised to silent lips — one of the House's most joyful statues, frozen at the height of a dance it will never finish.
The Faun is one of the few statues in the House that seems genuinely happy. Most depict neutral or contemplative expressions, or scenes of struggle and weight. The Faun is all motion and music and uncomplicated joy. Piranesi visits it when the silence of the House becomes too total, when he wants to remember that delight exists as a state of being. He has noted in his journal that the Faun's leap is anatomically perfect — the weight distribution, the muscle tension, the angle of the torso — as though the sculptor had watched a real faun dance and carved the stone while the image was still burning in their eyes.
A faun — half-human, half-goat — captured in mid-air, legs tucked beneath it in a leap that defies the weight of stone. Its face is wild with delight, mouth open in a laugh or a song, curly hair streaming back. One hand holds a set of pan pipes to its lips; the other is flung out for balance. The sculptor has rendered muscle and fur and the transition between human skin and animal hide with extraordinary naturalism. Small flowers are carved around the base, as though the faun's dance has called them into being.
Also known as: The Dancing Faun, The Piping Faun