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Plaquette, ‘The fall of Phaeton’
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Moderno (fl. late 15th century - early 16th century)
Plaquette, ‘The fall of Phaeton’
Late 15th or early 16th century
Italy
Bronze with a black patina
Diameter: 17.8cm
Museum number: S50
Not on display
Curatorial note
This small Italian bronze depicts the Greek myth of Phaeton, son of Helios, the sun god, whose attempt to drive his father’s chariot ended in disaster when he set fire to the earth and plumeted into the River Po. The myth was recounted by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato inTimaeus and by the Roman poet Ovid in Metamorphoses.
The story is shown as a composition of four plunging horses, with Phaeton falling headlong in the midst of the group, out of a shattered chariot, In the background, left and right, are hills with trees.
See Seymour de Ricci The Gustave Dreyfus Collection: Reliefs and Plaquettes (1931), 193, No. 189. Ricci mentions other examples in the British Museum, V&A, Oxford (Ashmolean). Louvre, Berlin, Brescia (with broad borders) and Florence. In the British Museum is an example of the 2nd state with an architectural instead of a landscape background (BM: OA.76). Also in the BM is an upright rectangular plaquette with the same composition extended and in high relief (BM: 1915,1216.129). Also see V&A catalogue of Italian Plaquettes, 1924, p. 33 and references.
These plaques are generally attributed to Moderno.
The story is shown as a composition of four plunging horses, with Phaeton falling headlong in the midst of the group, out of a shattered chariot, In the background, left and right, are hills with trees.
See Seymour de Ricci The Gustave Dreyfus Collection: Reliefs and Plaquettes (1931), 193, No. 189. Ricci mentions other examples in the British Museum, V&A, Oxford (Ashmolean). Louvre, Berlin, Brescia (with broad borders) and Florence. In the British Museum is an example of the 2nd state with an architectural instead of a landscape background (BM: OA.76). Also in the BM is an upright rectangular plaquette with the same composition extended and in high relief (BM: 1915,1216.129). Also see V&A catalogue of Italian Plaquettes, 1924, p. 33 and references.
These plaques are generally attributed to Moderno.
Associated items
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