Marquetry panel depicting an allegory of Summer. Eger, Bohemia 17th centur

A marquetry walnut and fruitwood panel depicting an allegory of Summer.

Eger, Bohemia, first half of the 17th century.

Measures 50 x 21cm.

The panel shows Bacchus wearing a fruiting vine headdress and kneeling before a basket, from which he picks grapes. To the right of Bacchus is Ceres seated in classical drapery with floral headdress before a fountain and holding a basket with flowers, her hand upheld to a foliate bough. The centre with a draped narrow tree trunk, the whole before an extensive landscape, a woodland hunting scene in the distance.

The panel is set in its original ebonised ripple moulded frame.

The city of Eger in Bohemia, now Cheb in Czech Republic, specialised from the first half of the 17th century in the production of furniture and decorative pieces carved in low relief and constructed from different coloured woods. Commonly depicting a wide range of mythological and historical subjects circulated at the time via prints and engravings, this art was carried on in the same family across generations and some of the most popular workshops were those of Johann Georg Fischer (1587-1669) and Adam Eck (1604–1664).