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Lot Essay
PUBLISHED:
Bullettino Dell'instituto Di Corrispondenza Archeologica, 1831, p. 110, no. 44.
E. Gerhard, Gesammelte akademische Abhandlungen und Kleine Schriften, Band II, Berlin, 1866, p. 557, pl. LII, no. 15.
C.O. Müller and F. Wieseler, Denkmäler der alten Kunst, II, Gottingen, 1877, Heft 4, p. 24, pl. LV, no. 705.
C. W. King, Handbook of Engraved Gems, London, 1885, p. 231, pl. LVI, no. 4.
A. Furtwängler, Die Antiken Gemmen, Geschichte der Steinschneidekunst, Leipzig and Berlin, Band III, 1900, p. 290, p.122, pl. XXIV, no. 50.
G. Lippold, Gemmen und Kameen des Altertums und der Neuzeit, Stuttgart, 1922, pl. XXIX, no. 3.
Described by C. W. King in 1885 as the birth of Cupid springing from an open pomegranate flower, this charming gem shows Eros, holding budding and flowering branches in each hand, emerging from a opening flower.
Count Nikolai Demidoff (1773-1828), was born near St Petersburg in 1773, son of Nikita Akinfiyevich Demidoff (1724-1786) and his third wife Alexandra Safonova. His father died when he was only fifteen at which time he inherited the family's industrial empire, consisting of some eight metallurgical factories as well as mines in the Urals and Siberia. In September 1795 he married Baroness Elisabeta Alexandrovna Stroganoff (1779-1818). The couple had two sons, Pavel Nikolaievich (1798-1840) and Anatoly (1812-1869).
Nikolai entered the diplomatic service and in 1819 he was made Russian Ambassador to the court of Tuscany. He lived his last years between France and Italy among scholars, financing the creation of schools, hospitals and other charitable institutions in Tuscany. He bought 42 acres of marshland north of Florence from the Catholic Church and there built the Villa San Donato from 1827 to 1831 where he set up richly-decorated private rooms to house his enormous art collection, which was divided between his residences in San Donato, St Petersburg, Paris and Moscow. By decree of Leopold II of Tuscany, on 23 February 1827 Demidoff was made Count of San Donato for the services he had rendered to Tuscany. The Demidoff art collection was dispersed at sales in Paris in 1863, on 21 February and 3 March 1870 and at the Villa San Donato in March 1880.
Bullettino Dell'instituto Di Corrispondenza Archeologica, 1831, p. 110, no. 44.
E. Gerhard, Gesammelte akademische Abhandlungen und Kleine Schriften, Band II, Berlin, 1866, p. 557, pl. LII, no. 15.
C.O. Müller and F. Wieseler, Denkmäler der alten Kunst, II, Gottingen, 1877, Heft 4, p. 24, pl. LV, no. 705.
C. W. King, Handbook of Engraved Gems, London, 1885, p. 231, pl. LVI, no. 4.
A. Furtwängler, Die Antiken Gemmen, Geschichte der Steinschneidekunst, Leipzig and Berlin, Band III, 1900, p. 290, p.122, pl. XXIV, no. 50.
G. Lippold, Gemmen und Kameen des Altertums und der Neuzeit, Stuttgart, 1922, pl. XXIX, no. 3.
Described by C. W. King in 1885 as the birth of Cupid springing from an open pomegranate flower, this charming gem shows Eros, holding budding and flowering branches in each hand, emerging from a opening flower.
Count Nikolai Demidoff (1773-1828), was born near St Petersburg in 1773, son of Nikita Akinfiyevich Demidoff (1724-1786) and his third wife Alexandra Safonova. His father died when he was only fifteen at which time he inherited the family's industrial empire, consisting of some eight metallurgical factories as well as mines in the Urals and Siberia. In September 1795 he married Baroness Elisabeta Alexandrovna Stroganoff (1779-1818). The couple had two sons, Pavel Nikolaievich (1798-1840) and Anatoly (1812-1869).
Nikolai entered the diplomatic service and in 1819 he was made Russian Ambassador to the court of Tuscany. He lived his last years between France and Italy among scholars, financing the creation of schools, hospitals and other charitable institutions in Tuscany. He bought 42 acres of marshland north of Florence from the Catholic Church and there built the Villa San Donato from 1827 to 1831 where he set up richly-decorated private rooms to house his enormous art collection, which was divided between his residences in San Donato, St Petersburg, Paris and Moscow. By decree of Leopold II of Tuscany, on 23 February 1827 Demidoff was made Count of San Donato for the services he had rendered to Tuscany. The Demidoff art collection was dispersed at sales in Paris in 1863, on 21 February and 3 March 1870 and at the Villa San Donato in March 1880.