Dog scratching its ear

These four plaques represent either domestic (a horse, two rams) or exotic animals (a rhinoceros and an elephant). Made on slate slabs cut to shape (a rectangle with concave angles), they are all based on the same narrative scheme: in a frame of Egyptian porphyry, an animal in multicoloured marble is represented advancing on a green marble floor, standing out against a black slate background. These plates were made in Italy, probably in Florence or in Rome, during the 18th century. We think that their primary purpose was to decorate the drawers of a cabinet. Like many other compositions in hard stone, these plaques were inspired by engravings that were a widespread decorative repertoire in the workshops. Three of the plaques presented here were directly inspired by works by Antonio Tempesta (1555 - 1630): the Rhinoceros, the Polish Horse...

This exceptional bronze group (unpublished), executed in Rome in the second half of the 18th century, bears witness to the fascination with the Laocoön since its discovery on January...

This small landscape shows a hunting scene: two riders are chasing a stag with their dogs at the edge of a forest. Signed by Peter von Bemmel, it is typical of the production of this...

This painting has been the subject of a study by the art historian Fabrizio Dassie (available on request), confirming its inclusion in Jan van Bunnik’s corpus. In this painting, Ja...

We thank Mrs. Bożena Anna Kowalczyk who suggested the attribution to Francesco Galimberti based on a photograph of the artwork. This engaging drawing, finely executed in black and red chalks, depicts a Venetian diplomat in his 'new clothes...

We would like to thank Juliette Parmentier-Courreau of the Custodia Foundation for her welcome and support during the consultation of Glomy’s Journal des Ouvrages. This spectacularly large "feuille de desseins ajustés" commissioned by François Boucher from Jean-Baptiste Glomy is emblematic of the painter's art and mastery of rocaille. It is also fully representative of the taste of this period in the field of decorative arts. The largest of these three drawings, placed at the bottom of the composition, is particularly interesting: dating from around 1756, it constitutes a modello (apparently unpublished) for the frontispiece of the "Catalogue des tableaux de Monsieur de Julienne"), preserved in the Morgan Library in New York. 1. François Boucher, the master of French rocaille The extraordinary career of Francois Boucher was unmatched by his contemporaries in versatility, consistency and output. For many, particularly the writers and collectors who led the revival of interest in the French rococo during the last century, his sensuous beauties and plump cupids represent the French eighteenth century at its most typical. His facility with the brush, even when betraying the occasional superficiality of his art, enabled him to master every aspect of painting – history and mythology, portraiture, landscape, ordinary life and, as part of larger compositions, even still life. He had been trained as an engraver, and the skills of a draftsman, which he imbued in the studio of Jean-Francois Cars (1661 – 1738), stood him in good stead throughout his career; his delightful drawings are one of the most sought-after aspects of his oeuvre. As a student of Francois Lemoyne (1688 - 1737), he mastered the art of composition. The four years he spent in Italy, from 1727-1731, educated him in the works of the masters, classics and history, that his modest upbringing had denied him. On his return to Paris in 1734, he gained full membership of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture with his splendid Rinaldo and Armida (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Although, throughout his career, he occasionally painted subjects taken from the Bible, and would always have considered himself first as a history painter, his own repertoire of heroines, seductresses, flirtatious peasant girls and erotic beauties was better suited to a lighter, more decorative subject matter. His mastery of technique and composition enabled him to move from large scale tapestry...

Jessica Carroll is an Italo- American sculptor (b. 1961), member of an artistic family (her father was a painter, her mother a writer and her grandfather directed the movie Totò, Pep...

A fine sculpture of a stalking fox finely modelled in sterling silver. Weight of silver 622 grams

The Nautilus shell is an excellent example of mathematics inherent within lifeforms of the natural world. As Davies consistently uses the 'golden ratio' (1:1.618) to proportion his work, he thought it important to exemplify this in his subject matter. The Fibonacci sequence (where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers) and the logarithmic spiral are also inherent here. The bronze shell is mounted on a black granite base in a way that creates an optical illusion suggesting it is levitating above the base. This bronze Nautilus...

Paranthropus Robustus. An early man (hominid), one of the Australopiths from the subepochs of the early to middle Pleistocene period 2.6 - 1.5 million years ago. Some distinctive fea...

Borzois or Russian wolfhounds originated in the 17th century and were bred and prized by the Russian aristocracy for their elegance and beauty. Davies has depicted this pair exhibiti...

This portrait bust of a Scottish blackface ram that occupies an active use of space, is the ideal subject matter for a dynamic, bold yet serene bronze sculpture. The ram's magnificen...