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Lot Essay
This antique form of seat with chimerical winged animals relates to the sphynx seat illustrated in Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior decoration , l807 pl XLX.
The composition of the back relief is based on the famous dynamic yet lyrical centre piece of Annibale Carracci's Triumph of Bacchus from the ceiling fresco of the Galeria Farnese, Rome (1597-1601). The satyr figures that frame the composition of the painting have been cleverly adapted to form the arms of the bench. The overall subject of Carracci's scheme is the loves of the gods, drawn from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Carracci was the leading figure of the Bolognese school of painting that dominated Rome in the first part of the 17th century, and his work was avidly admired and collected by those that undertook the Grand Tour.
The composition of the back relief is based on the famous dynamic yet lyrical centre piece of Annibale Carracci's Triumph of Bacchus from the ceiling fresco of the Galeria Farnese, Rome (1597-1601). The satyr figures that frame the composition of the painting have been cleverly adapted to form the arms of the bench. The overall subject of Carracci's scheme is the loves of the gods, drawn from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Carracci was the leading figure of the Bolognese school of painting that dominated Rome in the first part of the 17th century, and his work was avidly admired and collected by those that undertook the Grand Tour.