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Auction: 8004 - An Important Collection of Renaissance Medals & Plaquettes
Lot: 10

Florentine School, 15th century Bacchus and Ariadne, irregular rectangular bronze plaquette, max. 28mm. x 36.8mm., a good old cast, medium brown patina, number on reverse Bacchus, draped in a panther skin, standing at left, holding thyrsos in right hand, Silenus at his side, in the centre a young Bacchant holds back a bearded and horned ithyphallic Pan by one horn and by one arm as he tries to approach Ariadne, recumbent on a raised bed, drapery around her waist, her arms raised with her hands behind her head This scarce plaquette derived from an antique gem in the Medici collection (Gori, Museum Fiorentinum, pl. XCII, I), and is reproduced in one of the medallions from the workshop of Donatello which decorates the cortile of the Medici palace in Florence. The gem is also reproduced in engravings by Battista Franco (Bartsch 81) and Enea Vico (Bartsch 101). The composition is also to be found in a manuscript of Ptolemy once in the Matthias Corvinus library now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (ms. Latino 8834) References Bange 1922, 87; Florence, Bargello, 29; Molinier 7; Naples 3; Paris, Louvre, 270; Planiscig 1924, 388i Estimate £ 200-400

Sold for
£2,400