Flauta de pan picasso biography

Painting by Pablo Picasso

The Pipes of Pan (French: La flûte de Pan) is an oil-on-canvas by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.

Painted in 1923 during Picasso's classical period, the painting depicts two statuesque men of mythological origins.^[1] Frequently acknowledged to be his cornerstone work during this era, the painting makes use of a large canvas and a classical color palette that are acutely reminiscent of the ancient world.

The subjects which Picasso chooses to explore within this work– male Greek youth, musical pipes, as well as the Mediterranean setting– all hark back to classical ancient art.^[2]

Background

This work was painted at the crux of Picasso's classical period from 1919 to 1929, in which he was greatly intrigued by classical art.

At the time that he had painted The Pipes of Pan, Picasso was traveling extensively in Italy, and consequently drew inspiration for this painting in the Greco-Roman art he foun