Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy Bronze Plaque, Scene from Homer's Odyssey

About Auction

Live

British & Continental Auction | September 26,...

By Brunk Auctions

Sep 26, 2024

Set Reminder 2024-09-26 10:00:00 2024-09-26 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : British & Continental Auction | September 26, 2024 https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/brunk/british-continental-auction-september-26-2024-15011
Featuring furniture, decorative arts, and fine art, including an impressive Victorian English Silver Charles Hancock Presentation Urn among other silver; portraiture including an important Allan Ramsay portrait; other artworks by Rubens Santoro, Daniel Gardner, Raymond Thibesart, and others; a rare Joseph Charles de Blezer bronze bust of a free man; furniture including a fine Pietra Dura Inlaid Marble Top Table with Christie's Provenance; decorative pieces including a Sevres style gilt bronze mounted cobalt porcelain floor urn, a pair of Newton’s Terrestrial and Celestial Globes; and much more Brunk Auctions support@brunkauctions.com

View Full Catalog (240)

• Lot Description

  (Russian 1783-1873)

  Odysseus Slaying the Suitors of Penelope, inscribed, signed, and dated lower right in Cyrillic 1820, Saint Petersburg, gilt bronze relief plaque, 9-5/8 x 5-3/4 in.; wood frame 7-1/2 x 11-3/8 x 3/4 in.

  Provenance: Private Collection

  Note: The scene in relief here is taken from book 22 of The Odyssey, in which Odysseus and his son Telemachus slay the men who have been squatting in their palace and trying to force Penelope, Odysseus' loyal wife and Telemachus' mother, into marriage. The portion of the epic in question, as translated by Robert Fagles, reads as follows; 

  With that he trained a stabbing arrow on Antinous.. just lifting a gorgeous golden loving cup in his hands, just tilting the two-handled goblet back to his lips, about to drain the wine-and slaughter the last thing on the suitor's mind: who could dream that one foe in that crowd of feasters, however great his power, would bring down death on himself, and black doom? But Odysseus aimed and shot Antinous square in the throat and the point went stabbing clean through the soft neck and out-and off to the side he pitched, the cup dropped from his grasp as the shaft sank home, and the man’s life-blood came spurting out his nostrils-thick red jets-a sudden thrust of his foot-he kicked away the table-food showered across the floor, the bread and meats soaked in a swirl of bloody filth. The suitors burst into uproar all throughout the house when they saw their leader down. They leapt from their seats, milling about, desperate, scanning the stone walls-not a shield in sight, no rugged spear to seize. They wheeled on Odysseus, lashing out in fury: "Stranger, shooting at men will cost your life!" "Your game is over-you, you’ve shot your last!" "You’ll never escape your own headlong death!" "You killed the best in Ithaca-our fine prince!" "Vultures will eat your corpse!" Groping, frantic- each one persuading himself the guest had killed the man by chance. Poor fools, blind to the fact that all their necks were in the noose, their doom sealed. With a dark look, the wily fighter Odysseus shouted back, "You dogs! You never imagined I’d return from Troy- so cocksure that you bled my house to death, ravished my serving-women-wooed my wife behind my back while I was still alive! No fear of the gods who rule the skies up there, no fear that men’s revenge might arrive someday- now all your necks are in the noose-your doom is sealed!" Terror gripped them all, blanched their faces white, each man glancing wildly-how to escape his instant death? Only Eurymachus had the breath to venture, "If you, you’re truly Odysseus of Ithaca, home at last, you’re right to accuse these men of what they’ve done- so much reckless outrage here in your palace, so much on your lands. But here he lies, quite dead, and he incited it all-Antinous-look, the man who drove us all to crime! Not that he needed marriage, craved it so; he’d bigger game in mind-though Zeus barred his way-he’d lord it over Ithaca’s handsome country, king himself, once he’d lain in wait for your son and cut him down! But now he’s received the death that he deserved. So spare your own people! Later we’ll recoup your costs with a tax laid down upon the land, covering all we ate and drank inside your halls, and each of us here will pay full measure too- twenty oxen in value, bronze and gold we’ll give until we melt your heart. Before we’ve settled, who on earth could blame you for your rage?" But the battle-master kept on glaring, seething. “No, Eurymachus! Not if you paid me all your father's wealth- all you possess now, and all that could pour in from the world’s end-no, not even then would I stay my hands from slaughter till all you suitors had paid for all your crimes! Now life or death-your choice-fight me or flee if you hope to escape your sudden bloody doom! I doubt one man in the lot will save his skin!"

• Provenance

  Private Collection

• Shipping Info

  • Purchased items will be available for pick up or shipping from our Asheville, North Carolina auction facility within ten business days of the auction will be assessed a storage fee of $5.00 per day, per item. Purchaser agrees that packing and shipping is done at the purchaser's risk and that the purchaser will pay in advance all packing expenses, materials, carrier fees and insurance charges. At our discretion, items will either be packed by an agent such as a packaging store or Brunk Auctions. Please allow two weeks for shipping after payment is received. Shipment of large items is the responsibility of the purchaser. We are happy to provide names of carriers and shippers if a purchaser so requests. Brunk Auctions will have no liability for any loss or damage to shipped items.

     

• Payment & Auction Policies

  • Available payment options

    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
• Buyer's Premium
  • 26.00 %
• Condition
  uneven edges, some surface spotting, abrasions, surface dirt with possible small points of oxidation