Current Location: In storage
Titles
Perseus and Andromeda
Maker(s)
Maker:
Unknown
Entities
Categories
Description
Single vellum leaf, painted in gouache and gilt. Gold binding on upper edge. Ivory sticks and guards, shaped, carved, pierced, painted, gilt and partially backed with mother-of-pearl. (20+2) Rivet set with clear pastes.
Front: In the middle within a shaped oval frame, Perseus and Andromeda after Annibale Carracci's fresco in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. On each side, a smaller shaped frame containing a putto in a landscape. Background diapered in shades of blue, white and gold, with floral sprays adjacent to the reserves, and at top left and right areas of scale pattern in shades of pink. Reverse: In the middle a gnarled tree and greensward; and in the top corners and on either side of the top of the tree, sprays of pink or purple flowers and foliage. Sticks: In the middle, a pierced cartouche with a scrolled frame, containing a pair of lutes and oboes?, backed by mother-of-pearl/iridescent shell. On each side there is an elaborately scrolled and shaped cartouche, containing a gentleman playing a similar wind instrument. When closed, the shaping of the sticks creates a design on the edge of the fan and there is a lozenge-shaped motif on the end of the head. Guards: Below the shoulder, an engraved and coloured floral spray; above, rocaille scrolls, stylized flowers and a seated lady, backed by mother-of-pearl.
Notes
History note: Colonel Leonard C. Messel (1872-1953); his daughter Anne, Countess of Rosse (1902-1992)
Legal notes
Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and a gift from The Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum.
The central cartouche was derived from the fresco by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) in the Galleria Farnese in the Palazzo Farnese, Rome. The frescoes there were commissioned by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese (1573-1626) in 1595. On the reverse there is a gnarled tree and floral borders.
