Keywords: Sketch of a French Empire style clock. Bacchante and Bacchus.jpg en Watercolour gouache and pen and ink on laid paper Numbered 14 Dimensions 67 4cm by 50 8cm To be executed in gilt bronze; enamel dial within blue band A dancing Bacchus and Bacchante displaying a lyre containing the clock above a Bacchic trophy the garlanded frieze with thyrsus and double pipe motifs; on toupie spinning top This clock initially seems loaded with purely Bacchic imagery as Satyrs and Bacchantes formed the retinue of Bacchus Thus the trophy includes a Bacchante ™s tambourine bunches of grapes and a ewer and wine cup for convivial drinking whereas the frieze features the Satyrs ™ double pipes and Bacchus ™s thyrsus staff essentially a symbol of fertility This is all appropriate imagery for a dining room clock However the Bacchic theme is tempered by the contrasting symbolism of the lyre associated with Apollo and his Muses Bacchus and Apollo represented the two contrasting aspects of Man; Bacchus the darker libertine side of Man ™s nature in contrast to Apollo ™s standing for the restrained civilized and creative http //watercolours-drawings com/details asp subGalID 5 index 0 Author between 1814 1820 PD-Art French Empire style mantel clock Sketches |