VERY FINE AND RARE NEOCLASSICAL FIGURAL WHITE MARBLE MANTEL SURROUND, SECOND-QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

This fire surround relates very closely to three examples in The White House; in the Yellow Oval Room, the China Room (formerly known as the Presidential Collection Room) and the Vermeil Room respectively. The dancing figures are virtually identical in all four mantels but the overall configuration of the surrounds in the Yellow and Vermeil Rooms most closely resemble the design of the present mantel.

The dancing maidens are drawn from designs by Antonio Canova (1757-1822) and relate directly to 1793 models drawn for the Casa Canova in Possagno, the celebrated Danzatrice or dancer figures.¹ The bas-relief of Ganymede and the eagle centered on the frieze depicts a popular story of Greek and Roman mythology. Characterized in both Homer’s Iliad and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Ganymede was the son of Tros, a legendary king of Troy. A beautiful shepherd, he attracted the attention of Zeus, who fell in love with him. In the guise of an eagle, Zeus carried Ganymede off to Olympus, where the youth became the cupbearer to the Gods.

¹ Elena Bassi, La Gipsotica di Possagno (Venice, 1957).