Jupiter & Juno [Zeus & Hera]

:She stands barefoot, wearing a long-sleeved robe in white, deep pink and washed pale yellow and partly edged with gold; a red and gilt-topped sceptre in her right hand, an outsize peacock painted in brown, orange, greens and blues, at her left. The bearded Jupiter stands in red-laced sandles and wears a loose toga in pink, edged in brilliant iron red, and at the bottom in washed yellow; a gilt sceptre in his left hand, his right hand on hip; a large brown eagle on a lightning bolt at his left.  Both figures stand on shaped rockwork bases. H. Juno: 5.6 in (14.4 cm); Jupiter 5.75 in (14.6 cm).

Provenance: with Eroll Manners, London, 2006.

The figures show the typical characteristics of the ‘muses modeller’ and the painting of features, hair and clothing associated with the decorated muse figures.

Others: pair, Freeman Collection, Plate 199, as 1750-52, formerly the James McG. Stewart Collection, Sothebys 13 November 1973; Bradshaw, 1992, A19, 20, Plate 17, p.66 as circa 1751-2. 

Some overpainting to Juno’s base