/internal/media/dispatcher/794140/resize%25253Aformat%25253DthumbnailThe Three Gracesabout 1620Georg PetelOverall: 30.5 x 19.1 x 5.1 cm (12 x 7 1/2 x 2 in.)Gilded bronzeGift of John Goelet in honor of Hanns Swarzenski1976.8421Several of the sculptures of the German sculptor, Georg Petel, are interpretations of two-dimensional compositions by the Flemish baroque painter, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). This group is certainly inspired by Rubens's Three Graces in the Vienna Academy Museum (painted in about 1620-21). He made an ivory carving of the same group which was listed in the 1635 inventory of the Duke of Buckingham, the present location of which is unknown; it is possible that the bronze group was cast after this ivory. A later bronze cast is in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Braunschweig (Bro. 181). The figures, with their raised arms and flat palms, originally supported either a shell or a basket of flowers or fruits.
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