A Beer for Royal Vienna, a later 19th Century charger, the c...

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Hammer

£2,000

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A Beer for Royal Vienna, a later 19th Century charger, the central raised gilt framed rectangular panel painted after Pietro Da Cortona, 'The Age of Bronze' depicting 'a Roman Emperor distributing crowns, chronological symbols and medals to his victorious soldiers - translated from German text to reverse, within a pink/lilac ground, elaborately gilded with scrolling foliate tendrils and flower heads reserving oval cartouche with coronets, shields and weapons to a sea green ground, signed, titled to reverse and with blue beehive mark, diameter 49cm.

NB - A Scene from the Four Ages of Man which decorates the four walls in the The Stove Room (Sala della Stufa) situated in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence.

The room was originally an open loggia and was later converted to a room for a stove, really the grand duke's bathroom, and it was always reserved for the grand duke's private use. The room was decorated in two successive phases. In the third decade of the 17th century, Michelangelo Cinganelli, Matteo Rosselli, and Ottavio Vannini painted the ceiling and lunettes, using images of great kings from antiquity and allegorical figures. The stuccos are the work of Antonio Novelli and Sebastiano Pettirossi.

In 1637, Pietro da Cortona was assigned the task of decorating the walls, with the Four Ages of Man, themes inspired by Ovid and suggested by Michelangelo Buonarroti il Giovane. The Age of Gold alluded to the reign of Ferdinando II and the Medici-Della Rovere marital union. The Age of Silver was executed during the painter's first visit to Florence (1637), while the Age of Bronze and the Age of Iron were completed in 1644 on the basis of a prior plan.