File:Sculpture, plaster (AM 69313-10).jpg

English: Statue, plaster cast from antiquity of a dancing faun. The figure is a dancing faun holding a cymbal (krotala) in each hand and resting his right foot on a bellows or foot clapper (kroupalon). In 1878, the Auckland Museum in Princes Street received a gift of 34 casts of antique statuary from a wealthy expatriate Aucklander, Thomas Russell. John Logan Campbell saw the opportunity to establish the first free school of art in Auckland to be located in the Museum. The statues were used as models for figure drawing. Other classical statues were subsequently donated. A Plaster cast of the marble original 'Dancing Faun' or 'The Sprightly Faun' which can be found in the room of The Tribuna in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. The original dates from the 2nd century B.C. and is possibly part of a group (a coin from Cyzicus pictures the faun playing for a seated nymph, looking up at him, putting on a sandal.) The statue was cast in the 'Galleria Delle Belle Arti' workshops, Russell Street, Convent Garden, London in c.1870-78 and bought to New Zealand in 1878 as one of a collection of 22 sculptures and 11 busts. Thomas Russell donated this collection to the Auckland Institute. John Logan Campbell met the costs of installation into the earlier museum building at Princes St, including the manufacture of kauri plinths.