Pair of 18th Century Italian white marble putti sculptures

White marble figures of putti, used as allegories of abstract concepts like War and Peace or the Four Seasons, were a popular form of decorative iconography in the 18th Century. These figures date from c. 1740, when they would have been used to decorate the sides of an entranceway, or a large room. Being nearly 300 years old, these figures have survived exceptionally well, a fact which attests to the supreme quality of their original sculpting.

Each figure is impressively carved from white marble with slight bluish veining and depicts a putti sitting with a dog on a naturalistic base. One of the figures, the allegory of 'Peace', shows the putto eating from a bunch of grapes, while the other figure represents 'War' and shows the putto with a quiver of arrows over its shoulder.

One figure is slightly larger than the other, with the following dimensions:

Large figure height 48cm, width 48cm, depth 24cm
Smaller figure height 46cm, width 45cm, depth 23cm