Cannon

Although capable of being fired, this small cannon with its lavish decoration was clearly only ever intended for ceremonial use. It is signed by Giovanni Mazzaroli, a member of one of the three families of bronze founders who supplied the Venetian republic with much of its artillery from the fifteenth century through to the fall of the Republic in 1797. The Mazzaroli flourished from around 1620 onwards. The barrel is a supremely confident demonstration of the art of lost wax casting, in which the sculpture is first modelled in wax. A clay mould is then built around the wax, before molten bronze is poured into it, destroying the wax and replacing it with cast metal. The main decorative scene on the upper surface of the barrel and modelled in exceptionally high relief, depicts the lord of the gods Jupiter, seated on an eagle, hurling fire-bolts at a group of naked male figures of giant Titans, who struggle and cower beneath an avalanche of rocks. Around the muzzle is a frieze with the Rape of the Sabines, loosely based on the celebrated relief of this subject made by Giambologna around 1582–84. The sculptural quality of the decoration is even more evident on the cannon’s base or cascabel, decorated with Hercules struggling with two naked men, clearly derived from a small bronze or ivory group.