Bacchus and Ariadne was a favourite subject—Guido’s well-known composition in the Accademia di Luca, at Rome, being often pressed into the service. The large engraving of Jacobus Freij was issued in 1727, and it is probable that the majority of mounts decorated with this subject were produced after the publication of the engraving. The version illustrated is from the collection of Lady Northcliffe; a skin mount, with slight differences in the arrangement, was exhibited at South Kensington in 1870 by Captain J. E. Ottley; a third is in the cabinet of an American collector.
| Bacchus & Ariadne, Italian, from a fresco at Pompeii, 18th Cent., bought in Naples by Lady Duncannnon. | Mrs. Bruce Johnston. |
| Fan mount, Italian, from a fresco at Pompeii, gouache on skin bought in Naples by Lady Ponsonby. | Mrs Bruce Johnston. |
The famous composition by Annibale Carracci in the Farnese Palace also appears on a number of mounts; a portion of this picture forms the subject of the centre medallion of Lady Northcliffe’s fan (illustrated).
The still more popular ‘Aurora’ of Guido supplied the subject of many mounts, including one in the Schreiber collection, British Museum.
Fans painted with Raphael’s well-known composition of the ‘Marriage of Cupid and Psyche,’ in the Villa Farnesina at Rome, appear in many collections, the landscape being added; the example illustrated is a typical one; the stick, however, is modern.
The fan in the Wyatt collection with the subject of Venus and Adonis, by Leonardo Germo of Rome, is interesting from the fact that it is an example of an artist, who, apparently, signed a number of fans, and also from the circumstance that it formerly belonged to Benjamin West. The mount is kid, the stick tortoise-shell, engraved, silvered, and gilt.