Fragment of a Dionysiac Relief, Pan and Silenus in a Rustic Setting

97 Fragment of a Dionysiac Relief, Pan and Silenus in a Rustic Setting The left edge is preserved, with a cutting for insertion in a frame, as in the wall of a house. The other three edges are the result of irregular breaks. The back is smoothed and finished. A Pan with pedum (shepherd's crook) in right hand and a nebris (animal skin) around shoulders appears to be prancing from right to left, looking back, in front of a tall, rectangular pillar with molded top. On this Doric pillar are two cloven feet from the small statue, cult image of Pan, which stood on top. At right, a plump Silenus raises his right arm and rests left on uncertain object, perhaps the neck of an ass. From the position of the two figures, Silenus higher than Pan, the former may be seated and riding backward on the animal. A relief in the Museo Nazionale, Naples, Pan riding a mule or an ass in a rustic setting, shows the type of Graeco-Roman decorative panel represented by the Harvard fragment (Reinach, 1909-1912, III, p. 83, no. 5; Schreiber, 1894, pl. 54). Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer