XIX Century, Pair of Venetian Gilt Bronze Fireplace Chenets in Baroque Style

This imposing pair of Fireplace Chenets in finely chiselled and gilded bronze was made in Italy in Venice in the first half of the nineteenth century in Baroque style and are very similar to a famous pair of Fireplace Chenets burnished bronze Venetian manufacture preserved at the Museum of the Bargello in Florence.
The articulated structure of each Fireplace Chenet, symmetrical to the other, consists of three portions. The base, moved forward from the architectural structure of the whole, is composed of curved openwork elements with volutes, central shield, mask with leonine head from which two garlands depart. On the sides sit two winged putti who look up dreamily. Above the leonine head, on a small base rests a large element with a triangular base with wavy and curvilinear profiles outlined by large volutes. The profiles are enriched by three figures of fauns worked in high relief that sit showing the characteristic goat legs and feet, while the arms are transformed into vegetable elements that converge in a palmette fan in bas-relief, place in the wallpapers at the center of the figures. Always in the center stands, in bas-relief, the head of a woman, probably the goddess Ceres, whose soft hair falls sideways, coming out of the “soggolo”. In the upper portion, on a triangular base surrounded by an egg frame, crowns the whole a full-circle sculpture of cupid, or cupid, with wings, quiver and arms raised as if he were ready to shoot the arrow of love.
This pair of Fireplace Chenets of beautiful quality and considerable technical commitment in the realization, thanks to the remarkable size and the stylistic gracefulness of the whole, is very decorative and of great scenic effect. It can be displayed as a decorative object next to an old or modern fireplace, above the floor of the fireplace itself or as a valuable mobile.

Bibliography: “Bronzi Decorativi In Italia. Bronzisti E Fonditori Italiani Dal Seicento All’Ottocento”, Enrico Colle, Electa Ed., 2001