Rayner Hoff - Faun and Nymph

Rayner Hoff, drew close parallels between ancient greece and contemporary Australia and produces sculptures that celebrated the vitality and potencial of the human body. He is one of the most pagan and overtly sexual of all the artist's sculptures.

In Roman mythology, fauns are place-spirits (genni) of untamed woodland. Romans connected their fauns with the Greek satyrs, wild and orgiastic drunken followers of Bacchus (Greek Dionysus). However, fauns and satyrs were originally quite different creatures. Both have horns and both resemble goats below the waist, humans above; but originally satyrs had human feet, fauns goatlike hooves. The Romans also had a god named Faunus and goddess Bona Dea, who, like the fauns, were goat-people.

In Greek mythology, a nymph is any member of a large class of female entities in human form, that is either bound to a particular location, or landform, or is part of the retinue of a god, such as Dionysus, Hermes, or Pan, or a goddess, generally Artemis. Nymphs were the frequent target of satyrs.
Nymphs live in mountains and groves, by springs and rivers, and in valleys and cool grottoes. They are frequently associated with the superior divinities: the huntress Artemis; the prophetic Apollo; the reveller and god of wine, Dionysus; and rustic gods such as Pan and Hermes.