Cupids as Caryatids

This terracotta group in high relief is perhaps made by John Michael Rysbrack in ca. 1730 in England.

This terracotta relief - together with its pendant Mus. no. 7718-1863 - were made as sketch models for a larger composition in marble, probably used on the entablature of a doorway or chimneypiece; they may also have formed part of the pediment of a monument.

Rysbrack (1694-1770) was born in Antwerp, and trained in the Netherlands, but spent his working life in Britain. He was one of the most important sculptors active in this country in the first half of the 18th century, and specialised in portrait busts and funerary monuments. Although he never visited Italy, many of his works are clearly indebted to classical archetypes. His terracotta models are particularly fine, and are often virtually finished pieces in their own right.