Lot Essay
These bronze groups probably originally surmounted elaborate andirons, and would have been fastened by screws through the large holes drilled in the plinth. A variant of one of these models was offered in the Cyril Humphris sale (Sotheby's, New York, 11 January 1995, lot 109) where it was described as a 'Hercules and Deianira' and was attributed to the workshop of Francesco Fanelli. The present pair, which are clearly pendants to one another, makes this identification untenable. They are therefore much more likely to represent Lapiths and Centaurs, of which one can have an indefinite number. Stylistically, they are also closer to the idiosyncratic style of the Venetian sculptor Francesco Bertos, than to the Anglo-Italian Fanelli, who was a court sculptor to Charles I of England.