Aquamanile in the Form of a Dwarf Centaur

Description This aquamanile or water container is one of the few surviving examples to fill two purposes: holding water and providing light. The outstretched hands of the centaur (half man, half horse) would have held two candlesticks. The design of the faucet and its little mythological animal handle is of Syrian origin.

Exhibitions

• The Arts of Man. Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas. 1962.

Provenance Marquise de Ganay, née Ridgway, Paris; Arnold Seligmann, Rey et Cie., Marquise de Ganay Estate Sale, Paris, 1929; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1929 by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1929