Posted 11 years ago
mikelv85
(1232 items)
This was my prize find from Volunteers of America today. A beautiful Victorian? neo classical print in an ornate oval gesso and paper mache type frame. It measures 34" from the bottom to the pediment top and 17" across. Not much damage to the frame, just a few easily touched up scrapes.They are pretty rugged despite their looks. Someone may have put a coat of paint on the frame long ago. The back of the crest is a little more gold than the front. The glass appears to be original with it's flaws and roughly cut to the oval shape. It was falling apart and needed the "treatment". The original dust cover paper was gone. So no date, title, artist, or framer info. Someone just pounded a couple brads into it to keep the glass in place. The print is very fragile and would crumble easily if handed too roughly, but it is remarkably intact and looks awesome with it's light color tint. I gently removed everything and placed some sturdy cardboard behind it and put it's original backer board in place with new small nails. The glass had been pressing against the old nails. I'm surprised it didn't break. It's ready for another hundred years ! Not sure of the subject matter, if it's literary or just a fantasy piece. -Mike-
I'm telling ya, better put up some more walls:)
Just finished an hour long rearranging session...lol
What a nice addition to your collection . I love it !!
Thanks Manikin. I have very eclectic tastes. I wouldn't hesitate to put this with any of my 60's things. I love to mix styles and eras.
Well research has turned up a little info on what but not who. This type of print is called a chromolithograph. Basically a way to reproduce lithograph prints with color. Some are hand tinted and some use the chromo process. The frame is called a Barbola style which is gesso (plaster) and wood or paper as a base. The oval ones tend to be layers of some kind of paper soaked in gesso and wrapped around a from for what ever shape they wanted. Now I need to track down an artist which will be hard because I don't see a signature anywhere. It might be hidden somewhere in the print but I haven't found it yet.
I think I narrowed down the subject matter. It looks like an interpretation (before all the tragic stuff) of the "Orpheus and Eurydice"myth. Even though he has a lute instead of a lyre. Some pictures even show him with a violin. You have Aphrodite the goddess of love cheering them on from above.
Story excerpt courtesy of Paleothea http://www.paleothea.com
It begins with Orpheus, the best musician that ever lived. One strum of his lyre, one note sung, and beasts would crawl to him, rocks would shift their moss to move to be closer, trees would tear their roots to be closer to him. He had more power than a mortal man ought to for he was the son of the Muse Calliope.
He lived his life simply and carelessly until the day he met Eurydice. She was a Dryad, and when they fell in love it meant everything to them. But the rustic god Aristaeus saw Eurydice's beauty and desired it, and did not care that she was unwilling and in love with another. She ran from him in terror, without thought to her step, and so it was she stepped on a poisonous snake in her flight. The venom of its bite killed her at once and her spirit went to the Underworld.
There is more to the story ...but it is tragic .
Wow...Those are really nice and colorful. Mine is sort of subdued. Outside of the sepia main color it's mostly blue with just a hint of green. It could be faded, but I think it was just colored with a bit of hand tinting. Thanks for the link Geno :)
I found two more artists. Zula Kenyon and Maxfield Parrish. They did a lot of prints that I've seen before. They're similar but not quite the same.
Thanks so much for the link and info Phil :)