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Lot Essay
Ericthonius was the product - half-man half-serpent - of the god Hephaestus' attempt to rape the goddess Athena. After his birth, Athena put Ericthonius in a box and gave him to the three daughters of Cecrops, first King of Athens, instructing them never to open it. When two of the daughters disobeyed, they were so horrified by what they found that they went insane and threw themselves off a cliff.
The composition of the present relief is an adaptation of a painting by Rubens representing the Three Graces holding aloft a basket of flowers (Academy Museum, Vienna). The composition was adapted to create a gilt-bronze relief (Museum of Fine Art, Boston, inv. no. 1976. 842) which has been attributed to the German sculptor Georg Petel (1601/2-1634) who met, and was influenced by, Rubens (Schädler, loc. cit.). Petel is also known to have executed an example in ivory which was listed in a 1635 inventory of the collection of the Duke of Buckingham.
It is not known what the three female figures of the Boston relief held over their heads as the object is now lost. Certainly the present relief differs from Rubens' painting in the substitution of the seashell for the basket. It also differs from both the painting and the relief in the addition of the drapery to the extreme left of the group and across the hips of the middle figure. It is difficult to know if the author of the present relief drew his inspiration from the painting, the relief, or both, but it is notable that the disposition of the figures' hair, and the body proportions follow Rubens more closely than they do the relief attributed to Petel.
The composition of the present relief is an adaptation of a painting by Rubens representing the Three Graces holding aloft a basket of flowers (Academy Museum, Vienna). The composition was adapted to create a gilt-bronze relief (Museum of Fine Art, Boston, inv. no. 1976. 842) which has been attributed to the German sculptor Georg Petel (1601/2-1634) who met, and was influenced by, Rubens (Schädler, loc. cit.). Petel is also known to have executed an example in ivory which was listed in a 1635 inventory of the collection of the Duke of Buckingham.
It is not known what the three female figures of the Boston relief held over their heads as the object is now lost. Certainly the present relief differs from Rubens' painting in the substitution of the seashell for the basket. It also differs from both the painting and the relief in the addition of the drapery to the extreme left of the group and across the hips of the middle figure. It is difficult to know if the author of the present relief drew his inspiration from the painting, the relief, or both, but it is notable that the disposition of the figures' hair, and the body proportions follow Rubens more closely than they do the relief attributed to Petel.