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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
Ann Arbor, United States
Details
- 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
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