English or Italian Neoclassical School

The Dukes of Sutherland, Stafford House, London (possibly as De Wit, 'bas reliefs');

Thence by family inheritance to the present owner.

Possibly Catalogue of the Pictures in Stafford House, London 1898, nos 285 and 310 (as Jakob de Wit, ‘in imitation of Bas-relief’).

The embracing figures depicted in this pair of paintings are inspired by two sculptural groups from antiquity that became popular subjects for artists in England, Italy, and beyond by the second half of the 18^th century. The painting of Bacchus and Ariadne has visual origins in an ancient Roman fragment (1^st –2^nd century AD) with later 18^th-century additions that was probably acquired in the late 18^th century in Italy by James Hugh Smith Barry (1746–1801), soon thereafter becoming one of the most important pieces in his collection at Marbury Hall in Cheshire. The sculpture in the second painting derives from the Roman marble of Cupid and Psyche excavated from the Aventine Hill in Rome in 1749.² This sculptural group was widely reproduced across various media in the late 18 century, including in marble and paintings, as well as intaglios, porcelain, and earthenware.³

As noted by Francis Haskell and Nick Penny, these two sculptural groups were on occasion paired together, with a few examples recorded in English collections. In addition to a pair at Cobham Hall in Kent, a chimney piece with free-standing white marble sculptures of these groups is today in the Library at Ickworth House in Suffolk.⁴ A closely related chimneypiece of the same sculpture groups made in 1770 and attributed to the sculptor Carlo Albacini was almost certainly acquired in Italy by Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry (1730–1803) and was later also installed at Ickworth House, where it remained until 1990.⁵

This pair of paintings, which once formed part of the collection of the Dukes of Sutherland and most likely hung at Stafford House in London, may have originally been intended as part of a decorative scheme. While their author remains unknown, they share some visual similarities with a decorative artistic tradition flourishing in the neoclassical period. Comparisons can be drawn with the output of Biagio Rebecca (1735–1808), an Italian artist who established a successful career in England painting decorative panels for the interiors of English country houses and London mansions, such as a 23-metre wide ceiling painting at Harewood House, as well as interior decorative schemes at Harewood House, Belton House, Montagu House, Somerset House, and Carlton House.⁶ The painting of Cupid and Psyche shares some similarities with a canvas at Attingham Park painted en grisaille by Robert Fagan, an English artist who spent the majority of his career in Italy.⁷

¹ That sculptural group is today in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. no. 68.770. For a further discussion on the pairing of the groups, see F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, New Haven 1981, p. 190.

² Haskell and Penny 1981, pp. 189–91, no. 26, reproduced. A similar antique Roman marble was discovered in 1666 near the S. Stefano Rotondo in Rome.

³ Another version of the sculptural group that was in the collection of Count Fede was drawn by Pompeo Batoni between 1725 and 1730. Haskell and Penny 1981, p. 191, reproduced fig. 52.

⁴ Haskell and Penny 1981, p. 190. The sculptures are recorded at the National Trust, Ickworth: inv. no. 852240.3 and inv. no. 852240.2.

⁵ Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 26 November 2003, lot 87.

⁶ Several additional examples by Biagio Rebecca have been at Audley End since 1986, including a chimney board with a fictive classical vase (inv. no. 81035843) and a chimney board with an antique marble relief (inv. no. 81030248), among several others.

⁷ Inv. no. 609098; oil on canvas, 120 x 105 cm.