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Lot Essay
This beautifully executed gold repousse relief is one of a set of eight such reliefs which are thought possibly to have adorned a cabinet in the Borghese collection (Bange, op. cit., p. 2). Today, six of the panels - which all represent scenes from Ovid's Metamorphosis - are in the Bode Museum in Berlin, and the remaining example is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The present relief was purchased by the well-known Rubens scholar, Ludwig Burchard, before fleeing Germany in the 1930s.
The composition of the eight reliefs in this series were celebrated in the late 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and were originally created by the Roman sculptor Guglielmo della Porta (d. 1577). Documents suggest that the models, which were listed in an inventory drawn up at the time of della Porta's death, later passed into the hands of the goldsmith Antonio Gentili da Faenza (Malgouyres, op. cit., p. 114) to whom the Metropolitan Museum attributes their relief. The popularity of the compositions meant that they were executed by numerous artists over a long period of time, with examples in bronze, ivory, plaster and other media.
The composition of the eight reliefs in this series were celebrated in the late 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and were originally created by the Roman sculptor Guglielmo della Porta (d. 1577). Documents suggest that the models, which were listed in an inventory drawn up at the time of della Porta's death, later passed into the hands of the goldsmith Antonio Gentili da Faenza (Malgouyres, op. cit., p. 114) to whom the Metropolitan Museum attributes their relief. The popularity of the compositions meant that they were executed by numerous artists over a long period of time, with examples in bronze, ivory, plaster and other media.