A PAIR OF PAINTED PLASTER RHYTONS

Serving as decorative 'vase' garnitures for hearth mantelpieces, these plinth-supported bacchic 'rhytons' or ram-headed cornucopiae (horns-of-plenty) evoke festivities in antiquity and issue from triumphal sunflowered scrolls of acanthus. Recalling the poetic adage, Sine Baccho et Cerere frigit Venus, they are wreathed by garlands of fruit and flowers, sacred to the harvest deity Ceres. The latter suspend from a pearled and palm-flowered ribbon, whose sculpted bas-relief displays youthful genii assisted by 'Venus' dolphins in supporting the lyre, which is sacred to Apollo as the Mt. Parnassus poetry deity. They reflect the imperial Roman style promoted by the Italian architect G. B. Piranesis, 'Vasi, candelabri, cippi, sacrofagi, tripodi, lucerne, ed ornamenti antichiti', Rome, 1778, and the engraved oeuvres of the French architects C. Percier and P. Fontaine. A Limoges garniture of this pattern was sold Christie's Amsterdam, 9 November 2004, lot 40.