Lot 1224 - A200 Decorative Arts - Thursday, 31. March 2022, 10.00 AM
IMPOSING MANTEL MIRROR "À PALMES" WITH MYTHOLOGICAL PAINTING
Provenance:
- Bernese patrician property.
- On loan in the former estate of the von Steiger family in Tschugg near Erlach.
- Stuker Auction, Autumn 2012, Lot No. 1240.
- Wehrli Collection, acquired at the above-mentioned auction.
The Bernese sculptor Johann Samuel Diwy was in direct competition with the workshop of Johann Friedrich Funk and his son of the same name. For Diwy and his widow, who continued the workshop after his death in 1790, several outstanding works for Bernese societies are documented by sources. Several frames from the Diwy studio can be attributed to the Transition style, a style that combines elements of Rococo and Neo-Classicism. The closeness of the Diwy and Funk workshops to one another other was sealed by a marriage in 1861. Johann Samuel Diwy's grandson Karl Rudolf married Maria Magdalena Funk, granddaughter of the sculptor Johann Friedrich Funk II, in 1861.
The painting on the mirror on offer depicts an intimate group of four sleeping Bacchantes, entirely in the taste of the Dutch and Flemish late Baroque and Rococo artists. The flushed faces, the untidy bedding, the tilted flagon, the tambourine, and the luscious grapes testify to the Dionysian revelry that preceded their sleep. The situation is exploited by two curious Satyrs in the background, who secretly watch over the naked nymphs. The viewers of the trumeau mirror are unwillingly drawn into the intimate erotic situation, and thus join the side of the observing Satyrs.
The magnificent mantel mirror on offer is comparable to a pair of frames from the workshop of Diwy's widow, Johanna Diwy-Gruner (1750-1803), which she demonstrably delivered in 1794 for the rooms of the Grande Société in Berne, founded in 1759 (cf. Manuel Kehrli: Mobiliar und Raumausstattungen der Grande Société von 1766 bis 1834. In: Hôtel de Musique und Grande Société in Bern. 1759-2009. Murten 2009, p. 181).
CHF 20 000 / 30 000 | (€ 20 620 / 30 930)
Sold for CHF 21 040 (including buyer’s premium)
All information is subject to change.