The Erato lenticular box is made of a lacquered wooden box with a marquetry of lenticular images veneering the outside.
A lenticular effect is where the image has a trick of having two images flip to each other or appear to have 3D depth depending on how the viewer looks at it.
This box is veneered with a collage of lenticular images. The different directions of the lenticular grooves give a shimmer and movement to the veneer…definitely taking a common, cracker jacks-like novelty and taking it to a high level of decorative art. If I do say myself!
The box measures approximately 6.5″X9.5″X5.5″H. It is off to our New York showroom, Profiles. Contact Russell Raitreri at 212-689-6903 if you are interested.
Jewelry for tables.
The Nine Muses in Greek mythology have been an inspiration to artists since antiquity. They are (in alphabetical order): Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania. According to Hesiod’s Theogony (seventh century BC), they were daughters of Zeus, king of the gods, and Mnemosyne, Titan goddess of memory. Others think that they were even more promordial , springing from the early deities Ouranos and Gaia. Gaia is the Earth Mother, an early mother goddess who was worshiped at Delphi from prehistoric times, long before the site was rededicated to Apollo, possibly indicating a transfer to association with him after that time.
However, this box is dedicated to the muse Erato. Erato, meaning the “lovely” or “beloved”, was the Muse of Lyric Poetry, especially love and erotic poetry. She is usually depicted with a wreath of myrtle and roses and holding a Cithara (lyre), or holding a golden arrow. Erato has also been shown with Eros holding a torch.
The muse Erato as seen in a detail of a Roman marble sarcophagus, 180 to 200 CE.
Erato by François Boucher (1703-70).
An art-deco stone bas-relief by the artist Alfred-August Janniot( 1881-1969) created for a wall at the Palais Tokyo in Paris.
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