SOLD ARCHIVE : The Dog of Alicibiades / Jennings from IDHOME antiques,

Home \| Sold Archive \| SOLD ARCHIVE : The Dog of Alicibiades / Jennings
SOLD ARCHIVE : The Dog of Alicibiades / Jennings

Click To Enlarge

SOLD ARCHIVE : The Dog of Alicibiades / Jennings

SOLD ARCHIVE : Please let me know if you are looking for something similar.

A mid 19th century serpentine marble model of ” the dog of Alcibiades ”. After the antique.
England, Circa 1860

Height: 11in (28cm)

Guide Price £800

The subject is also known as

The Duncombe Dog
The Dog of Alcibiades
The Jennings Dog

This model of a seated dog is a copy of a well known Greek original known as the “Dog of Alcibiades”. Alcibiades (c.450-404 BC) was an Athenian statesman who led the Athenian forces against Sparta in the Peloponnesian War in 418 BC. The famous story is that Alcibiades cut off his dog’s tail and, on hearing that, all of Athens felt sorry for the animal. Alcibiades answered that he “wished the Athenians to talk about this, that they might not say something worse about me” (Plutarch, Life of Alcibiades).

The dog is a Molossian, ancestor of the great mastiff, and one of several breeds said in antiquity to come from Epirus in northwestern Greece.

A one time owner of a marble replica (that stood at 46 inches high), Henry Constantine Jennings, was the first to describe his Molossian dog as “Dog of Alcibiades”. Like Alcibiades he was fond of horses, but his passion for racing brought him nothing but financial loss and he was eventually forced to sell pieces from his collection through Christie’s, London. The statue was purchased by Charles Duncombe of Duncombe Park in Yorkshire with whose family it still remains. Modern casts of the marble were made and other known versions can be found in the Cortile del Belvedere of the Vatican and in the Uffizi. All the large replicas of the dog come from Italy and it is not inconceivable that they all come from the same Roman workshop. Another still stands by the canal along Fisher Row in Oxford and a copy in marble is at Hever Castle in Kent. In 1829 John Edward Carew executed a full-size copy in stone for the 3rd Earl of Egremont, as a memorial to one of the earl’s hounds which accidently drowned in the lake in Petworth Park. The sculpture is in reality a Roman copy of what must have been a famous Greek original (presumably in bronze). No other animal sculpture from the ancient world has come down to us in so many Roman copies.

Make an Offer

Price : Inquire below

Back

Previous Item

Item 17 of 48 from the category Sold Archive

Next Item