Totemic Sculpture attributed to Janine Janet
by Janine Janet
£24,000
Code
5576
Plaster totem by notable French 20th century set designer Janine Janet (who collaborated with, amongst others, Balenciaga, and Jean Cocteau). The cleft hoof base supports a pillar-like body of climbing ivy and entwined snake, ending in an antlered stag's head crowned with a symbolic sun roundel. The roundel, sitting as it does between the antlers of the stag, depicts a crescent moon and flame - harking back to the pagan association between stags, fertility, and harvest. In many pagan traditions, the gods are depicted wearing stag antlers, and renowned druid David Legg comments:
"Bears, boars, raven, and many other animals are well represented as the totemic animals of gods and goddesses across the Indo-European spectrum. However, in Classical times the stag was of paramount importance to the Scythians and other peoples across the Eurasian steppes. The subject of the most striking Scythian gold jewellery, the stag has even been found as tattoos on the so-called 'ice princess' in the Altai Mountains. Here at the eastern extremity of the Indo-European steppe culture zone, her frozen body was recovered with Scythian style stags still plainly visible on her skin... The stag was one of the favourite motifs of the so-called Kurgan peoples in previous millennia, and so its pedigree as an object of veneration amongst the Indo-European peoples is very ancient."
France, 1950 - 1960
"Bears, boars, raven, and many other animals are well represented as the totemic animals of gods and goddesses across the Indo-European spectrum. However, in Classical times the stag was of paramount importance to the Scythians and other peoples across the Eurasian steppes. The subject of the most striking Scythian gold jewellery, the stag has even been found as tattoos on the so-called 'ice princess' in the Altai Mountains. Here at the eastern extremity of the Indo-European steppe culture zone, her frozen body was recovered with Scythian style stags still plainly visible on her skin... The stag was one of the favourite motifs of the so-called Kurgan peoples in previous millennia, and so its pedigree as an object of veneration amongst the Indo-European peoples is very ancient."
France, 1950 - 1960
H 170cm
H 67"
H 67"
