A SWISS ENAMELLED GOLD SNUFF-BOX

The scene featured on this snuff-box is after a painting 'Aeneas and Anchises' by Leonello Spada or Lionello Spada (1575-1622) dated circa 1615 now in the Louvre Museum, Paris (INV 680; MR 183). The scene depicts Anchises being carried by his son Aeneas as they flee Troy to escape being enslaved, travelling to Italy to become progenitors of the Romans, represented by Roma holding Romulus and Remus. The style of this snuff-box is reminiscent of that of Jean-George Rémond who often used scenes after classical paintings which carried a strong political message mostly relevant to the French Revolutionary Wars, which in 1798 overran Switzerland, renamed the Helvetic Republic by Napoléon. The Swiss confederation was partially restored in 1803 by Napoléon's Act of Mediation, but it was not until the Congress of Vienna of 1815 that its independence was fully re-established and the European powers agreed to recognise its neutrality.