Pair 19th Century French Ormolu mounted Marble Cassolettes

Description

An exquisite pair of Louis XVI style 19th century French ormolu bronze and marble Cassolettes. Each mounted with top quality … more An exquisite pair of Louis XVI style 19th century French ormolu bronze and marble Cassolettes. Each mounted with top quality ormolu grapes, grape leaves, flanked by two Dionysus heads.

Height 12 1/4" (31.1cm)

Dionysus was the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking and wine, of fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth.

He is also known as Bacchus the name adopted by the Romans and the frenzy he induces is bakkheia. His thyrsus, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. As Eleutherios ("the liberator"), his wine, music and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. Those who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself. less