Skip to main content

Folding fan: M.321-1985

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Maker(s)

Maker: Unknown
Artist: da Cortona, Pietro (After)

Entities

Categories

Description

Folding fan, single skin leaf, painted in bodycolour and watercolours. Sticks and guards of lacquered ivory (22+2) rivet of brass and washer of mother-of-pearl. Front: the front leaf shows 'The Rape of Sabines', after Pietro da Cartona (1596-1666), but the design is reversed. In the centre, in front of an obelisk, a roman is abducting a Sabine and another Roman is hitting a man, who is trying to protect a Sabine; on the left, in front of a temple, five Sabines are being abducted by Romans, one of them on horseback; on the right a man with a crown between two columns stands on a podium. Below this there are roman soldiers, an abduction and a child; a statue stands on a podium; bushes and trees are placed in the background and there is some action between the central and right scene. The top lower and left borders are black with scrolling gold ornaments. Back: flowers, fruit and birds on a black background, in the centre two naked figures are holding a garland of flowers. Sticks: painted in different colours of lacquer showing Chinoiseries in two fan leaf-shaped rows with nine cartouches each. Four miniatures in the upper row. Reverse; gold pattern. Guards: both guards are painted in a similar way showing Chinoiseries in cartouches and ovals

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

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bought (1985-01-28) by Countess of Rosse, Anne

Dating

18th Century, Early#
Production date: circa AD 1700

Note

The scene is "The Rape of the Sabines", after Pietro da Cortona (1596-1666). The original, painted between 1626 and 1631, is now in the Pinacoteca Capitolina, rome. Much of the design is reversed, showing it was taken from an engraving, probably by Pietro Aquila (Le Blanc 83, cf no. 17 in BM 1962, 246).

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Leaf composed of watercolour bodycolour skin
Washer composed of mother-of-pearl
Sticks+guards composed of ivory
Rivet composed of brass (alloy)
Guards Length 27.4 cm

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: M.321-1985
Primary reference Number: 117906
Old catalogue number: DR 2/19
Old object number: 364
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 22 November 2021 Last processed: Thursday 7 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Folding fan" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/117906 Accessed: 2024-03-29 06:21:40

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/117906 |title=Folding fan |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-03-29 06:21:40|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-117906

More objects and works of art you might like

Perpetual Almanack

Accession Number: M.275-2015

Classical Mythology Scene

Accession Number: M.223-2015

Folding fan

Accession Number: M.144-1985

Venus and Adonis

Accession Number: M.127-2015

Suggested products from Curating Cambridge

You might be interested in this...

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...