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Plaquette - A Bacchanal of Children
  • A Bacchanal of Children
    Riccio, Andrea Andrea Briosco
  • Enlarge image

A Bacchanal of Children

  • Object:

    Plaquette

  • Place of origin:

    Padua (possibly, made)

  • Date:

    ca. 1500 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Riccio, Andrea Andrea Briosco (artist)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Bronze

  • Credit Line:

    Salting Bequest

  • Museum number:

    A.419-1910

  • Gallery location:

    Sculpture, Room 111, The Gilbert Bayes Gallery, case DR17

Plaquettes are small plaques made of bronze, brass, lead or precious metals. They originated in the 1440s with the desire to reproduce coins and hardstone engravings from ancient Greece and Rome. Some were made as collector’s pieces, to be viewed and displayed in private, and others for practical purposes. They also inspired designs in other media, from architecture to bookbindings. The rimmed edges on independent plaquettes such as this suggest that they originally formed part of a larger casket. This one is an impression taken from a triangular sandbox used for sprinkling sand on to ink to dry it.

Physical description

Trapezoidal bronze plaquette depicting a Bacchanal of children. To the right, Pan is seated playing a fantastic lyre and accompanied on the syrinx by a child. A crowd of children lead a goat to him, one boy is falling off the goat's back and another bestrides a crawling satyr who is sucking the goat's udder. Double moulded rim above and below, the background minutely punched.

Place of Origin

Padua (possibly, made)

Date

ca. 1500 (made)

Artist/maker

Riccio, Andrea Andrea Briosco (artist)

Materials and Techniques

Bronze

Dimensions

Height: 43.5 mm, Width: 109 mm

Object history note

From the Salting bequest.

Descriptive line

Plaquette, bronze, depicting a Bacchanal of children, school of Riccio, Italy (Padua), 16th century

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

'Salting Bequest (A. 70 to A. 1029-1910) / Murray Bequest (A. 1030 to A. 1096-1910)'. In: List of Works of Art Acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum (Department of Architecture and Sculpture). London: Printed under the Authority of his Majesty's Stationery Office, by Eyre and Spottiswoode, Limited, East Harding Street, EC, p. 66
Maclagan, Eric. Catalogue of Italian Plaquettes . London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1924, p. 24

Materials

Bronze

Subjects depicted

Child; Satyrs; Goat; Lyre

Categories

Plaques & Plaquettes; Sculpture; Myths & Legends

Collection

Sculpture Collection

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