Beautiful Empire period clock in gilt bronze and antique green patina representing Minerva seated on a stool facing an Etruscan monopod pedestal table.
The goddess holds with a raised hand, a scale in which she weighs on one side Eros child (Love, Cupid) and on the other a butterfly (Psyche, the soul).
The decor, in the background, simulates a temple with Corinthian columns and a triangular pediment decorated at the top with a mask of an Amerindian old man dear to André-Antoine Ravrio (commonly used on his sconces and chandeliers).

On each side of the monument, a monopod wall console with a leonine volute leg accommodates a beautiful antique ewer.

This scene can be interpreted as an allegory of Psyche's triumph, where she earns her place among the gods.
Indeed, the story of Eros and Psyche can be read as an allegory of the soul shared between carnal love and divine love.
As a lover of mythology and its legends, I would like to summarize the story of this legendary couple, as Apuleius told it to us:

Once upon a time (just to be able to tell it to your children), in a distant kingdom, a king and a queen had three daughters as beautiful as they were graceful. The youngest was so extraordinarily beautiful, so marvelous, that there were no words to express it. The men captivated by the young Psyche forgot the cult of Venus, goddess of love and beauty. She then appeals to her son Cupid to take revenge for the affront. But the god himself succumbs to the charm of the innocent princess: did he inadvertently hurt himself with one of his own arrows or did Psyche's purity of soul triumph?
Anyway, instead of delivering the princess in marriage to the most miserable of mortals, as her mother Venus ordered, Cupid has Psyche abducted in the air and installs her in his enchanted palace, where all is than gold, luxury and voluptuousness. Impalpable voices listen to the young girl's slightest desires; every night, her mysterious husband fills her with happiness. She quickly becomes pregnant. But he misses his family. She gets to see her parents again and bring her sisters, on condition that she never tries to see her husband's face.
Of course, her sisters immediately envy her life worthy of a goddess. They insinuate that her husband is only a monster, so terrible that he fears to be seen. Psyche, tortured by doubt, wants to get to the bottom of it. Equipped with an oil lamp to illuminate the beast and a dagger to kill it, she surprises Cupid in the first sleep after love. And it is dazzling! But a drop of oil falls from the lamp and the wounded god disappears forever.
Long wanderings follow for the grieving Psyche: she seeks help from Juno, then from Ceres, and finally surrenders to Venus. She becomes the slave of her "mother-in-law" who has her whipped and submits her to tests worthy of the exploits of Hercules: after sorting mountains of seeds and bringing back the golden wool of cannibalistic sheep, she must collect the waters of the Styx, the infernal river, at its source. Finally, she still has to go down to the Underworld to ask Proserpina, the wife of Pluto, ruler of the underground kingdom, the secret of her beauty, locked in a box given by Venus.
Beautiful and amiable as she always is, Psyche is not lacking in helpers: ants, trees and rivers, a tower and even Jupiter's eagle spontaneously offer her their services. However, the princess gives in to legendary female curiosity, well known since Pandora, and opens Proserpina's box: she thus releases deadly vapors which plunge her into a deep sleep, but Cupid comes to revive her by touching her with the tip of his one of his arrows. The young god in love obtains from Jupiter that his wife be welcomed at the table of the gods on Olympus. Psyche consumes nectar and ambrosia there, which make her immortal: she now enjoys eternal bliss alongside her god.

I am sure that this beautiful story made you think of others, more modern, at Disney and consorts.

Work of great finesse with neat carvings, with a magnificent original gilding. 

In perfect working order, revised by an expert watchmaker. 

Very rare model attributed to André-Antoine Ravrio (1759-1814).

Empire period.

As with all of my art objects and furniture, I am very careful to be able to offer them to you at a very low expert estimate. 
My objects are photographed naturally, without going through a photo studio. Because of this, you can enjoy them as they really are.

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