17th century wood and black marble table - North of Italy

Renaissance Marble Portrait Northern Italy, 17th century, inspired by antiquity Marble 36 x 13 cm (including the marble pedestal) This Renaissance portrait head of a young man, sl...

Cerberus Black painted stone Italy, 17th century Measures: 80 x 69 x 36cm (one head missing) Cerberus, cruel monster, fierce and strange, Through his wide threefold throat barks as a dog Over the multitude immers'd beneath. His eyes glare crimson, black his unctuous beard, His belly large, and claw'd the hands, with which He tears the spirits, flays them, and their limbs Piecemeal disparts (Dante, Inferno, Canto VI). Cerberus figure seated, in his role of ferocious guardian of the underworld; he shows a nervous musculature, an adherent skin which reveals the ribs, long and robust limbs; his heads are broad and the eyes set well apart. Painted in black to amplify his menacing look, the infernal guardian is depicted with his famous attributes, writhing his heads, growling and barking furiously. Cerberus, in Greek mythology, was the monstrous watchdog of the underworld – also known as the “hound of Hades” – preventing the dead from leaving, and making sure that those who entered never left. A child of Typhon and Echidna, he was part of a monstrous family, which included Orthus, the Lernaean Hydra, and the Chimaera as well. Only on three occasions Cerberus was tricked by visitors of Hades: Heracles did it with his strength, Orpheus with his music. In "The Inferno", Dante places Cerberus as the guardian of the third circle of Hell. With his three mouths, Dante saw Cerberus as a beast that was synonymous with the sin of Gluttony. Virgil gets past the monster by throwing mud in his three mouths, temporarily choking him. Very rare are the representations of Cerberus in ancient statuary...

Bacchus 
Southern Italy, late 17th century
 Alabaster Sculpture
 H: 20 cm A finely carved 17th-century alabaster sculpture of a naked Bacchus. This Italian alabaster figure depicts ...

Marble lion white marble France, probably Périgord, 17th century Small marble lion wearing a coat of arms pendant with the engraved date, ...

Walnut table. 17th century. Table with smooth rectangular board and two drawers to the front, decorated with simple geometric shapes on their fronts, leaving between them a strip wit...

A spectacular mid-17th century Venetian Sculpture - "Enfant Au Coussin" - Enfant With Pillow. Expertly carved from Verona Marble. An architectural element originally serving as a b...

Table. Walnut wood, iron. Spanish school, Guadalajara, 17th century. Table with a rectangular and smooth top, four spheres under the four legs (these joined by chambranas that start...

17th Century solid yew wood side table having a plank top with moulded edges. A single frieze drawer with brass handles and escutcheons. Raised on very nice, well turned legs and the...