拍品專文
The two scenes depicted here are iconographically related, both of them having been taken from the story of the Trojan war. In the first, Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, is about to be sacrificed so that the wind keeping her father's ships from sailing against Troy will be stilled. The goddess Diana substitutes a deer at the last moment, and carries Iphigenia away to be her priestess. In the second relief, Paris awards the golden apple to Venus in her contest of beauty with Juno and Minerva. His subsequent abduction of Helen, wife of the king of Sparta, precipitates the Trojan war.
Although there are significant differences in the composition of the two reliefs, there are also sufficient similarities to suggest that they have come from the same hand, perhaps separated by a number of years. Certainly both reliefs display a dream-like quality - particularly the central group of the Sacrifice scene - which is echoed in documented works by Banks such as the relief of Thetis and her Nymphs rising from the Sea to console Achilles for the loss of Patroclus, which is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Further parallels may be drawn with the same relief, such as the fascination the sculptor has with depth perception, and the effect which can be created by having the furthest figures 'melt' into the surface plane of the marble. The group of figures to the left of the Sacrifice relief are also closely comparable to the male figures in the Death of Germanicus, carved by Banks in 1774, and now at Holkham Hall, Norfolk (Whinney, loc. cit., fig. 234).
Although a direct connection cannot be made, it is also interesting to note that in 1768, Banks exhibited 'The Judgement of Paris; a Model' at the Free Society of Artists (number 10 in the exhibition, Bell, op. cit., p. 15.
Although there are significant differences in the composition of the two reliefs, there are also sufficient similarities to suggest that they have come from the same hand, perhaps separated by a number of years. Certainly both reliefs display a dream-like quality - particularly the central group of the Sacrifice scene - which is echoed in documented works by Banks such as the relief of Thetis and her Nymphs rising from the Sea to console Achilles for the loss of Patroclus, which is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Further parallels may be drawn with the same relief, such as the fascination the sculptor has with depth perception, and the effect which can be created by having the furthest figures 'melt' into the surface plane of the marble. The group of figures to the left of the Sacrifice relief are also closely comparable to the male figures in the Death of Germanicus, carved by Banks in 1774, and now at Holkham Hall, Norfolk (Whinney, loc. cit., fig. 234).
Although a direct connection cannot be made, it is also interesting to note that in 1768, Banks exhibited 'The Judgement of Paris; a Model' at the Free Society of Artists (number 10 in the exhibition, Bell, op. cit., p. 15.