Renaissance Bronze Cup Antonio Pandiani Milano

Cup on a pedestal in the shape of a triton emerging between two water horses and blowing into a conch including its lid surmounted by a Nereid, probably Thetis, seated on a conch, a veil in the wind. Two winged horses in a “prancing” posture form the handles. The body of the cup is decorated on one side with Cybele seated in her chariot pulled by two lions guided by a satyr holding the tyrsus (attribute of Dyonisos). The other side is decorated with a man looking back and appearing to flee, seated on a chariot led by four horses in full gallop on the waves. The whole rests on a multi-level plate decorated with grotesques in the style of Roman antiquity, rediscovered during the Renaissance. Signed A. Pandiani Milano (1838-1928) This set refers to a legend told in the Illiad: As an adult, Dionysus (son of Zeus and the mortal Semele) discovered the vine and its use. Hera, jealous of this child born from the infidelity of her husband Zeus, struck him with madness. In this state the god wandered through Egypt and Syria. Thus, going up the coasts of Asia, he arrived in Phrygia, where he was welcomed by the goddess Cybele, who purified him and initiated him into the rites of her cult. Once freed from his madness, he reached Thrace, where he was very poorly received by King Lycurgus, who reigned on the banks of the Strymon. Lycurgus tried to take the god prisoner, but he did not succeed, because Dionysus fled to Thetis, the Nereid, who gave him asylum in the sea. Thus we find in this vase Cybele his protector, the flight of Dyonisos and the marine world of Thétis Son of art, Antonio Pandiani was a renowned Milanese sculptor. With his brother Costantino (1837-1922), author of the famous Pukki of the Helsinki Zoo, he supported the Lombard neoclassical style by exhibiting on several occasions in the exhibitions organized by the Brera Academy. Very quickly professor of sculpture in the same school, Antonio became responsible for the foundry in 1886: from this date, thanks to the beautiful artistic production supported by the artist and his family, he continued to design innovative subjects. A popular sculptor with a lively academic style, Pandiani was best known for his numerous portraits, such as the bronze bust of Alessandro Manzoni (now in the collections of the GAM in Milan, 1905) and that of Queen Victoria, signed and dated from 1890 (Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection, The National Trust). Often dedicated to reproducing historical monuments in miniature, such as the bronze copy of the Istrian stone wellhead, at the Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, Pandiani executed the sculpture with Vittorio Emanuele II as the hunter. Alongside this more historicist production, we must remember the artist's beautiful work in the context of finely decorated bronze cups and vases, such as the specimens now kept at the Museum of Toscanini's birthplace in Parma.