Baroque Revival Animal Sculptures

A striking true pair of French 19th century Neo-Classical st. black Belgian marble and ormolu statues of Cleopatra and Semiramis, signed Bouret 1874. Each statue is raised by an eleg...

Transport your surroundings to the refined splendor of the 19th century with our Black and Grey Marble Fountain. Crafted with meticulous attention to detail, this exquisite piece cap...

A large 19th century Portuguese wall fountain. Finely sculted in Verona marble with a moulded star inlayed plint above the lobbed basin resting on a baluster plint. The dolphin snout...

Nice couple of two small gilded Baroque style wooden ornaments, Italy, circa 1850. Weathered and small losses. Measurement here below of the largest one and includes the wooden base.

A Folk Art carved wood and gesso painted standing horse with painted cloth saddle and horse hair tail Mounted on a later made black painted platform.               

GARDEN FOUNTAIN OF THE HALF OF THE XX CENTURY DECORATIVE GARDEN FOUNTAIN FROM THE 50'S IN STONE OR SIMILAR. IT IS COMPOSED OF 3 PARTS. IT IS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION IN GENERAL. MEASU...

An antique small bronze sculpture of a winged Sphinx, on a red "Griotte" marble plinth. The statue is quite refined, with a nice golden color and old patina. Decorative piece that a...

Decorate a shelf or a man's office desk with this stately antique marble lion sculpture. Created in Italy circa 1890, and hand carved of variegated...

Behold this exquisite 19th-century French gilt bronze lion head architectural fragment, a mesmerizing relic of a bygone era. This captivating ...

Pair of 19th century French sandstone lion fragments. Well carved and with very endearing features. Though fragmentary, these lions present as importan...

Mappling Princess Plate London and Sheffield silver egg coddler stand holder in art deco style from 1880 with four silver egg holders with four silv...

Sea monster Carrara marble mouth fountain Italy, late 16th century It measures 13.8 x 31.5 x 18.9 in (35 x 80 x 48 cm) State of conservation: some small evident gaps and widespread signs of wear due to outdoor exposure. The gray marks crossing it do not come from restoration, but are rather the natural veins of the marble. This work has some morphological characteristics typically associated with the iconography of the sea monster: an elongated muzzle, sharp teeth, protruding eyes, elongated ears, and a coiled serpent's tail. An in-depth series of studies on artistic depictions of the sea monster attempted to verify how this symbol evolved in antiquity in the European and Mediterranean contexts and how it gradually changed its image and function over time. The iconography itself is mutable and imaginative and its history is rich with cultural and artistic exchange, as well as the overlapping of ideas. This occurred so much that it is difficult to accurately pinpoint the "types" that satisfactorily represent its various developments. However, we can try to summarize the main figures, starting from the biblical Leviathan and the marine creature that swallowed Jonah (in the Christian version, this figure was to become a whale or a "big fish", the “ketos mega”, translation of the Hebrew “dag gadol”). Other specimens ranged from the dragons mentioned in the Iliad (which were winged and had legs) to "ketos” (also from Greek mythology), the terrifying being from whose Latinized name (“cetus”) derives the word "cetacean". See J. Boardman, “Very Like a Whale” - Classical Sea Monsters, in Monsters and Demons in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, in Papers presented in Honor of Edith Porada, Mainz am Rhein 1987, pp. 73-84). In Italy the monster underwent yet further variations: it can be found in Etruscan art on the front of some sarcophagi representing the companion of souls, while among the Romans we find the “Pistrice” (cited by Plinio in Naturalis Historia PLIN., Nat., II 9, 8 and by Virgilio in Eneide: VERG., Aen., III, 427), which appeared in the shape of a stylized hippocampus or a very large monstrous cetacean and evolved into a hideous being with a dragon's head and long webbed fins. During the Middle Ages, the sea monster was the object of new transformations: at this time, it is often winged, the head is stretched like a crocodile, the front legs are often very sharp fins - sometimes real paws - until the image merges with dragons, the typical figures of medieval visionary spirituality widely found throughout Europe (on this topic and much more, see: Baltrušaitis, J., Il Medioevo fantastico. Antichità ed esotismi nell’arte gotica, Gli Adelphi 1997). In Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries, the revival of classicism - representative of the humanistic and Renaissance periods - led to a different reading of these "creatures". Indeed, the sea monster was also to find widespread use as an isolated decorative motif, especially in numerous fountains and sculptures where dolphins or sea monsters were used as a characterizing element linked to water (on this theme see: Chet Van Duzer, Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps, London, The British library, 2013). From the morphological point of view, the "sea monsters" of this period are mostly depicted as hybrid figures, in which the body of a mythological or real being (a hippocampus, a sea snake, a dolphin), is joined to a head with a rather indistinct appearance. It was usually characterized by large upright ears, an elongated snout, sharp teeth and globular, protruding eyes; a complex and indefinite figure, both from the symbolic point of view and from that of its genesis. The work we are examining is placed as a cross between the medieval sea serpent and the Renaissance dolphin, with stylistic features which recall the snake as often used in heraldry (such as the "snake" depicted in the coat of arms of the Visconti - the lords and then dukes of Milan between 1277 and 1447 - and which, for some, may be derived from the representations of the “Pistrice” that swallowed Jonah). In the search for sources, Renaissance cartography and in particular woodcuts should not be neglected. See for example the monsters of Olaus Magnus, from the editions of the “Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus” (“History of the peoples of the north”) and the natural histories of Conrad Gesner, Ulisse...