[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.

Additionally, the subjects themselves are Greek by nature– the pipes held by the figure on the right are a clear reference to the pipes of Pan, the personified Greek god of “life in the periphery”– who essentially functions as the embodiment of peripheral attitude (free-ranging, and lustful but frustrated)[4] and pastoral life.

[5] She was a beautiful and wealthy American expatriate who became flirtatiously involved with Picasso, their relations leading all the way up to the conception of this painting.

However, a possible reason why this initial idea was scrapped was because Picasso's infatuation came to a head– perhaps Sara rejected him, and so he erased her from the painting composition.