Firedog (c. 1785): Art, History and Details

Firedog (c. 1785) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Although Louis Jean Desprez’s design was largely inspired by tombs in southern Italy, he added sphinxes in his print Tomb with Sphinx due to his fascination with ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptians saw the sphinx, a half-human, half-lion mythological creature, as a protector of tombs and temples. The pair of andirons, decorative supports for a hearth’s firewood, alongside Tomb with Sphinx, highlight the growing interest in Egyptomania during the 1700s. Interestingly, the andirons portray ancient Greek and Roman interpretations of the sphinx. Most Europeans learned of ancient Egypt by studying Egyptomania in ancient Roman and Greek art and architecture or Egyptian antiquities brought over by the Romans.

Object facts

• Title: Firedog
• Date: c. 1785
• Culture: France
• Type: Furniture and woodwork
• Technique: gilt bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 50.3 x 46.3 x 14 cm (19 13/16 x 18 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Furniture
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1944.126.1

Collection credit

The Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Prentiss, Elisabeth Severance, and Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection; Bequest of Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, 1944. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1944. Published as: Pair of Firedogs, chenets
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.