JEWELLERY, ANTIQUE & ART Tuesday, 22 January 2019 - 10:00 AM start
A pair of bronzes modelled after the 'Furietti Centaurs'
Realised: $1,800 plus premium
Lot Details
modelled as the Old Centaur with bound hands and Eros riding behind and teasing him, the other, the Younger Centaur, again with Eros on his back. Both raised on oval section white Carrara marble plinth bases. H.475mm. The Hellenistic-style Roman marble Furietti Centaurs were discovered during archaeological excavations in Italy in 1736, another single example was excavated in Rome in the 17thC and now stands in the Louvre. Their discovery was celebrated by means of castings, engravings and scale bronze replicas. Their theme has been variously considered, but 18th/19thC audiences apparently saw them as emblematic of the joy of young love and the contrasting bondage of maturity. These current examples appear to be mid-19thC.
