Lot Essay
The medallion depicts an altar, embellished with a rose-festooned Venus head and surmounted by regal trophies beside a sacred cassolette. It is attended by a pensive figure, whose pose corresponds to that of a heroine in Angelica Kauffman's history painting that was engraved in 1778 as 'Pheenissa', the friend of the tragic Carthaginian queen Sophonisba (see R.-M. Muthmann 'Angelika Kauffmann' Düsseldorf, 1979, no.75)