Alexandre Cabanel, French
The Famous Dance Contest Scene From “Satyr-Day Night Fever,” 1860
Oil on canvas
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MASTERPIECE #3275
/// The “abduction” involves Nymph and Satyr,
and he clearly wants more than to date her.
When he seized her she smote
him, and that got his goat.
What’s erotic now… turns brutal later.
/// To seduce nymphs with words some men can,
but, although his top half is all man,
this “shy” stammering satyr
is no master debater.
His goat half has an alternate plan.
/// His strength forces her into submission,
but how is it she’s in this position?
He’d been playing his pipes—
seemed like one of her “types,”
a big muscular, long-haired musician.
/// Then he pounced, grunting like a big ape.
Held her tight, so she couldn’t escape.
Some may call this “abduction,”
or “impassioned seduction,”
but the truth is we’re viewing a rape.
Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here (archived if necessary), here, here, here, here, here (can be read in full for free on Fridays), here, here, here (archived if necessary), here (archived if necessary), here, and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page (Google translated French Wikipedia page has more).
/// In the shade of a dense wooded hollow,
the nymph had skin care rules she would follow.
Apply aloe, cut fresh,
to keep milky white flesh,
and don’t ever go out with Apollo.
/// Just because nymphs through forests flit nude
is no reason for him to intrude.
She would wish to be gone
and not, thus, “fauned” upon,
because he’s not just bestial, he’s rude.
/// Fine white cloth ‘round his left wrist is wound.
Could be something she wore before found
in this forest primeval,
by a beast bent on evil.
Not “satyrical,” grim and profound.
/// Flowers are in his hair interwoven,
and his furry legs end in hooves (cloven).
Lustful impulses burst.
Can it be he was cursed,
by not just one witch; by the whole coven?
/// Goat, like horse, is a four-legged beast,
while a centaur has six limbs, at least.
Satyr’s dubious charms
count two legs and two arms.
Why is centaur’s allotment increased?
/// The wild satyr, conceited was he.
He assaulted this nymph ‘neath a tree.
She cried, “Unhand me, goat!”
But that just made him gloat:
“Yes, the Greatest Of All Time, that’s me!!”