The Cassandra convex mirror is composed of a gilded frame layered with four colors of transparent Venetian glass rods. The gold, bronze and silver colors are very evocative of ancient jewelry. Attached to the middle, raised central frame are smoky quarts points.
The Cassandra convex mirror is 16 inches in diameter. It is currently in my studio pending being shipped to my New York showroom, Profiles. Contact Russell Raiteri at 212-689-6903 if you are interested.
Jewelry for walls!
In Greek mythology, Cassandra was one of the princesses of Troy, daughter of Priam and Hecuba. According to the Myth, Cassandra was astonishingly beautiful and blessed with the gift of foreseeing the future. Her curse was that no one believed her, a fact that weighed heavily on the destruction of Troy during the Trojan War.
The god Apollo fell in love with her and granted her with the gift of prophecy. When Cassandra spurned his advances, he placed a curse on her, so that no one would believe her words or her predictions. He gave her a gift that would bring frustration and despair to her.
Cassandra foresaw the destruction of Troy by the Greeks; when the Trojans found the big wooden horse outside the gates of their city Cassandra told them that Greeks will destroy them if they bring the horse in the city. No one in Troy believed her, and the horse was admitted in the city. Destruction, pillage and rape were the result.
When Troy fell to the Greeks, Cassandra tried to find a shelter in Athena’s Temple, but she was brutally abducted by Ajax and was brought to Agamemnon as a concubine. Cassandra died in Mycenae, murdered along with Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. But that’s another story….
Engraving of Cassandra by John Hamilton Mortimer, 1776
The Burning of Troy painted by Johann Georg Trautmann in 1759-62.
Ajax Abducting Cassandra by Solomon Joseph Solomon( 1860-1927) painted in 1886.
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