Bookend with muse Clio Gustav Gurschner ca. 1907
Bookend with the greek muse Clio, design Gustav Gurschner, ca. 1907, cast bronze, signed
Description
The versatile sculptor Gustav Gurschner was an artist between the times, as this accessory for a library impressively shows. Living at the turn of the 20th century, Gurschner could make use of the well-known formal canon of the cultured bourgeoisie and develop his own formal language from it.
This bookend is a fine example. A statuette of a woman can be seen on a stair-like base. She is wearing a tunic-like gown and reading a parchment. This allows the statuette to be associated with ancient Greek times. It is very likely that the depicted woman is Clio, one of the nine muses. Her attribute is the papyrus scroll and, according to Greek mythology, she is the muse of historiography.
Gurschner used the motif of the reading female figure also on other of his objects, and we can find the same statuette adorning a writing set.
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