Loading

Mantel clock with a priestess and Cupid offering a sacriffice to Venus

Joseph BuzotFrance, Louis XVI (r. 1774-1793)

University of Michigan Museum of Art

University of Michigan Museum of Art
Ann Arbor, United States

  • Title: Mantel clock with a priestess and Cupid offering a sacriffice to Venus
  • Creator: Joseph Buzot
  • Creator Nationality: French
  • Creator Gender: Male
  • Date Created: France, Louis XVI (r. 1774-1793)
  • Location: Paris, France
  • Physical Dimensions: w29.5 x h43 x d13.2 mm (work)
  • Label Copy: This lavish mantel clock is surmounted by a scene of ritual sacrifice cast in gilded bronze. A priestess in long, flowing robes stands to one side of the clock dial and holds a small dish in her left hand from which she pours oil to anoint a sacrificial dove held by Cupid. Between them sits on a small altar inscribed “Altar of Venus” on which blazes a fire for immolating the dove. The elaborately sculptural character of this scene and the fine materials reveal this clock to have been made for a member of the French aristocracy in pre-Revolutionary France. The clock was produced by the master clockmaker Joseph Buzot, whose father and brother specialized in the making of springs for the many watch- and clockmakers active in Paris. Joseph manufactured the movement of this clock and signed the dial, but he subcontracted the work for the ebony base and bronze figures, a practice typical for the period.
  • Type: Decorative Arts
  • External Link: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2001-sl-2.82/2001_2.82.JPG?lasttype=boolean;lastview=thumbnail;resnum=1;sel9=ic_exact;size=20;sort=relevance;start=1;subview=detail;view=entry;rgn1=musart_an;select1=starts;q1=2001%2F2.82
  • Medium: gilded bronze, ebony, porcelain, and glass
University of Michigan Museum of Art

Get the app

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Home
Discover
Play
Nearby
Favorites