Pan between Renaissance and Fin-de-Siècle: the lesson of Jacob Burckhardt

The essay moves from the work of Jacob Burckhardt and the strategy he devised for his study of 'The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy.' It then traces various responses to Burckhardt's notion of "civilization" in British and European culture between the 1860s and the 1930s. Burckhardt's cultural history prompted the revival of Pan within the definition of modern identity and gender building. The cult of the pagan god Pan spread from the arts to the wide cultural scenario: from scholarly essays, travelogues, novels, gothic stories, it spread into children's literature, music, illustrations, periodicals, ballet and costume, and eventually the cinema. The conclusion of the essay points to the death of Pan, as described by D. H. Lawrence in the cultural context of the Fascist regime of the 1930s, bent on the ideological retrieval of Roman military history.