A Pre-Raphaelite muse, a warrior’s shield, a panel from Napoleon’s clock and other highlights from London Art Week

Pseudo Caroselli’s painting ‘Homo Homini Lupus’ is an enigmatic scene showing a leopard next to a decapitated human head, a lion and a dragon-shaped helmet. It could refer to the cruelty of man given the title (‘A man is a wolf to another man’). The artist, mysterious in his own right, is believed to have been a northern European artist active in Rome during the first half of the 17th century. It is available during London Art Week at Brun Fine Art.

• Frances Allitt
  
• 03 Dec 2018

The event launched with a series of openings last Thursday, but tonight there is also a late night with many of the galleries open until 9pm. It runs until December 7. 

Here are some of the highlight objects that can be found around the various exhibitions. For other shows and a schedule of talks and events, visit the LAW Website.

A tribal warrior's shield - Oliver Forge & Brendan Lynch

This Sazande fibre shield is one of the objects from a private collection of African and Oceanic art offered by Oliver Forge & Brendan Lynch.

Oliver Forge & Brendan Lynch feature a selection of African and Oceanic art from a private collection. It was amassed over 50 years at a house in Chelsea, once lived in by the sculptor Uli Nimptsch. It includes objects from Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and beyond.

A Zande shield from the Democratic Republic of Congo is included, made with painted geometric designs in black on a natural ground. It is thought to have played a significant role among the Zande even after the introduction of firearms, the pattern identifying its bearer during battle. The prince who ordered a raid would award captured enemy shields who ordered a raid would award captured enemy shields to outstanding warriors, the gift being regarded as a mark of distinction by the recipient’s family.

The rediscovered portrait of William Blake's defender - Bagshawe Fine Art 

This rediscovered portrait of Samuel Rose by Sir Thomas Lawrence is offered by Bagshawe Fine Art.

A recently rediscovered portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence of the lawyer Samuel Rose is among the highlights at Bagshawe Fine Art. Rose successfully defended the poet William Blake against a charge of high treason in 1804. He was connected to the poet William Cowper and the novelist Fanny Burney. His sister married Burney’s brother Charles and this picture was passed down through the family.

A Pre-Raphaelite muse - Lullo Pampoulides

This 1860 marble bust of Helen Huth (1837-1924) is one of a pair produced by the Scottish sculptor Alexander Munro (1825-71). The other features her husband Louis Huth, director of the London Assurance for Fire, Life and Marine Assurance. Together they lived in Mayfair and were great patrons of the arts, collecting works by George Frederick Watts and JM Whistler. She posed for a portrait by Whistler in 1872, Arrangement in Black, No2, which her husband bought in 1872.

A panel from Napoleon's clock - Didier Aaron

Didier Aaron offers this bronze relief panel by Barthélemy François Chardigny which was made to decorate a clock commissioned for Napoleon.

Didier Aaron was founded in 1923 and specialises in works of art from the 17^th-19^th centuries. During LAW it features a low relief in patinated bronze by Barthélemy François Chardigny (1757-1813) of Urania teaching Eratosthenes astronomy. It was made c.1808 to decorate the base of a clock for Chateau de Compiegne commissioned on behalf of Napoleon I.

The panel features Egyptian elements, such as allegorical figures that represent the Nile, the pyramids and a canopic jar (on the far right), which alludes to discoveries made during Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt. It depicts Eratosthenes of Cyrene, a historian, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and geographer who was summoned to Alexandria in 245BC by Ptolemy III to tutor his son.

Iridescent chiarascuro ceramic - Raccanello Leprince 

A collection of ‘chiroscuro iridescente’, the Art Nouveau pottery of Cantagalli, is featured at Raccanello Leprince.

An exhibition of Art Nouveau ceramics at Raccanello Leprince brings together a collection of pieces featuring an experimental glaze created by Ulisse Cantagalli. Dubbed Chiaroscuro Iridescente, the pieces were made as a reaction that the factory had become too traditional in its output. The works on show were made between 1900-10.

“The dark lustre is what sets these pieces apart,” says the gallery’s Justin Raccanello. “These are quite tricky to make and are done with a technique derived from the way the ancient Etruscans made their black bucchero ware.”