A George III statuary marble chimneypiece tablet

The composition relates to the celebrated Galleria Doria Pamphili marble relief by Francois Duquesnoy (d.1643). A terracotta version of the latter was incorporated in a chimneypiece at Spencer House, London in the 1760s (J.Friedman Spencer House, London, 1993, figs 181 and 145). Such bacchinales were supplied by the Hyde Park sculptor Henry Cheere (d.1781), for whom they may have been modelled by William Collins (d.1793) (J.Physick Designs for English Sculpture, London, 1969, p.128)