19TH CENTURY

Details

A pair of Italian maiolica armorial snake-handled vases
19TH CENTURY
The ovoid body painted allover with Rafaellesche spindly grotesque motifs, each with a frontal coat-of-arms surrounded by fauns and herms, etc., the neck waisted, with coiled double snake handles issuing from a large satyr mascaroon, on pedestal base (one foot with repaired fragments)
42.5 cm. high (2)

Provenance

Schloss Nöthnitz, Dresden, inventory number Nö 411 and 38556, the other with 38557.

Special notice

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Sale room notice

Please note the description should read:
A pair of Italian maiolica armorial snake-handled vases
19TH CENTURY
Estimate: 4.000-6.000 EUR

Until 1998 the vases were part of the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Dresden, inventory numbers 38556 and 39557. See K. Stöver, 'Grotesken auf Majoliken un Textilen der Dresdener Kunstgewerbemuseum', in: R.G. Richter (ed.), Götter, Helden un Grotesken, das Goldene Zeitalter der Majolika, 2006, pp.30-36, ill.13. Here noted as formerly dated to the second half 16th century, now reattributed by this author to Cantagalli, circa 1870.

Please note that the feet of both vases are repaired and consist of restuck fragments.

Lot Essay

Schloss Nöthnitz near Dresden is home to a museum dedicated to Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), German art historian and archaeologist, who had a decisive influence on the rise of the neoclassical movement in Europe. He was appointed secretary of the famous library of Count Heinrich von Bünau at Schloss Nöthnitz.
The contents of the Estate were confiscated and given inventory numbers by the East German regime after WW II and restituted after the fall of communism.
The Rafaellesche motifs were inspired by the decoration in the Vatican Loggia by Giovanni da Udine under the direction of Raphael, who was inspired by the excavations of the Domus Aurea, Nero's Palace.

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