CIRCA 1770-1775

The fire-dogs, with festive laurel-wreathed urns evoking lyric poetry, personify the Element of Fire and are conceived in the Louis XVI goût Grec fashion associated with the 1760s designs of the sculptor bronze-worker Jean-Louis Prieur, 'sculpteur, ciseleur et doreur du Roi' (H. Ottomeyer, P.Prösschel et.al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, fig. 3.14.7). Homer's Odyssey and 'Cupid's triumph' in Ovid's History of Mars and Venus in Metamorphoses or Loves of the Gods, are recalled by urns standing on altar-pedestals displaying laurel-wreathed medallions of the deities, while youthful genii, like Vulcan's assistants, fashion a helmet for Aeneas, the hero of the Trojan wars.