Lot Essay
A drawing by Domenico Forla (1627-1703) for the prow of a ship incorporates a winged naked goddess emerging from an acanthus scroll which is itself supported on a scrolled fish. The drawing is in the collection at the Palazzo Rosso in Genoa. A number of console tables are recorded with similar figures, including one in the Royal Palace in Genoa (see: A. González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Il Granducato di Toscana e gli Stati Settentrionali, Milan, 1986, pp. 388-9, figs. 822-826). The figures on these console tables are sitting astride their scrolls, rather than emerging from them, as in other executed examples.