18th-century Gilded Carriage Panel—apollo On His Chariot And Minerva

18th-Century French or Italian School
Apolloon His Chariot and Minerva
Oil and gold on panel
H. 61 cm ; W. 54 cm

While we are accustomed to discussing painting, we are less so when it comes to horse-drawn carriages and the world surrounding them.
In fact, this panel comes from a gilded carriage of the kind seen in 18th-century Italy and in the most prominent. These gilded carriages were painted on many surfaces, primarily on the side panels and the rear, often featuring their owner’s coats of arms, but just as often depicting mythological and allegorical subjects.

We must look to artists such as the Frenchman Jacques Chevalier, who decorated the coronation carriage of Louis XVI in 1775, or Italians such as Filippo Falciatore or the Fariano family at the Court of Savoy in Turin, the main center for the production of these richly decorated carriages.

The theme here is fairly easy to recognize. A mid very18th-century putti, garlands of flowers, and a few architectural elements, stands Apollo on his chariot in the center — a youthful ephebe dominating the scene — and in the foreground, Minerva. She holds a flaming torch that has been handed to her.