Landscape with Pan Playing a Flute

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Enamored with landscapes like many other German Romantic artists, Reinhart worked exclusively in that genre, often including vignettes of mythological figures in his prints and drawings. Although Reinhart sometimes showed contemporary people playing music and communing with nature rather than gods, here Pan is identified by his cloven hoofs and shaggy legs. Reinhart documented some of his sketches as depicting specific locations around Rome, but this place is intentionally unidentified. Pan’s quiet moment under the broken trunk of a massive tree epitomizes both the idea of a fantastic Arcadian wilderness as well as the fragility of that dream.

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