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Lot Essay
The ormolu-enriched statuary marble 'altar' pedestals incorporate Egyptian porphyry tablets and display bas-reliefs celebrating sacrifices at Hymen's altar. The image of the 'Roman Marriage' with the making of the vows was popularised by an engraving in G.P. Bellori's, Admiranda Romanorum Antiquitatum, Rome, 1693 (see detail illustrated below), and this was also published in Bernard de Montfaucon's, Antiquity Explained, 1732.
Such pedestals were intended for bronze statues and provided appropriate garnitures for the Rome-sculpted chimney-pieces of the 1770s, such as that purchased by Thomas Mansel Talbot of Margam Park, Wales in 1773 from Carlo Albacini. The latter's execution in marble and porphyry, with medallioned bas-relief of Cupid and Psyche, has been attributed to the sculptor Cardelli, while its gilt bronze mounts have been attributed to the celebrated goldsmith and bronze-founder Luigi Valadier (d.1785) (A. Gonzalez-Palacios et al.,'Valadier', London, 1991 pp.164-165)
In particular they relate to the pedestal in an 1800 design by the bronze-founder Franceso Righetti (d.1829) for a 'Diana' candelabra embellished with a sacrificial bas-relief derived from Rome's Arch of Constantine (A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, Vol II, Milan. 1993, p. 261, fig. 522).
Such pedestals were intended for bronze statues and provided appropriate garnitures for the Rome-sculpted chimney-pieces of the 1770s, such as that purchased by Thomas Mansel Talbot of Margam Park, Wales in 1773 from Carlo Albacini. The latter's execution in marble and porphyry, with medallioned bas-relief of Cupid and Psyche, has been attributed to the sculptor Cardelli, while its gilt bronze mounts have been attributed to the celebrated goldsmith and bronze-founder Luigi Valadier (d.1785) (A. Gonzalez-Palacios et al.,'Valadier', London, 1991 pp.164-165)
In particular they relate to the pedestal in an 1800 design by the bronze-founder Franceso Righetti (d.1829) for a 'Diana' candelabra embellished with a sacrificial bas-relief derived from Rome's Arch of Constantine (A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, Vol II, Milan. 1993, p. 261, fig. 522).