Inkwell decorated with Grotesque Satyr Masks

Label

Early modern rooms dedicated to intellectual pursuits, such as libraries, housed many small-scale functional sculptures that contributed to a collector’s study. While inkwells, candlesticks, and sandboxes were themselves useful for scholarly activities, these objects’ all’antica imagery and classically coded materials, like bronze, also made them prestigious. They testified to the owner’s education and good taste. Mass-produced objects like the two octagonal pedestals with Bacchic imagery could be altered to suit various uses, such as supporting small sculptures or holding the sand used to dry ink. The form, quality, and adornment of common objects like inkwells shifted in relation to expense. The small inkwell in this case replicates the ornament of grander, more finely finished examples; sirens form supportive feet and satyrs’ masks and vegetation add decoration. The rough quality of the cast, the lower-quality metal alloy, and the lack of finishing, however, all indicate the relative affordability of this inkwell.

From the 2024 exhibition Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art, and Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections

Course History

History 42.01, Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies 22.01, Gender & European Society, Patrick Meehan, Spring 2024

History 96.39, Saints and Relics, Cecilia Gaposchkin, Spring 2024

Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Noemi Perego, Spring 2024

Italian 11.01, Intensive Italian, Floriana Ciniglia, Spring 2024

Italian 2.01, Introductory Italian II, Floriana Ciniglia, Spring 2024

Italian 3.01, Introductory Italian III, Tania Convertini, Spring 2024

Italian 3.02, Introductory Italian III, Giorgio Alberti, Spring 2024

Exhibition History

Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, Citrin Family Gallery and Engles Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 23, 2024–March 22, 2025.

Provenance

Ernest Joresco, Chicago, Illinois; sold to Wallace D. Bradway, New Haven, Connecticut, 10 March 1979; given to present collection, 2022.

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