Stock No: 15298

A large and beautiful antique giltwood sunburst centred by a carved mask, mounted on a trompe l'oeil roundel, of the Greek God Apollo as a personification of the Sun. Radiating out from the mask are twenty two sun rays linked to a giltwood framed circle of further trompe l'oeil set with four giltwood bosses. It is likely to have once been a ceiling adornment in a grand Italian palazzo.
Italian, 18th century or earlier.

Photos before restoration.

Notes: Apollo was a Greek Roman deity and one of the Twelve Olympians. Recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth, healing, the Sun and light, poetry and prophecy he was the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt.

Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The national divinity of the Greeks, Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. He is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Seen as the most beautiful god and the ideal of the kouros (ephebe, or a beardless, athletic youth), Apollo is considered to be the most Greek of all the gods. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu.[1]

Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets