Getty Museum
Pair of Stags
Creator
Johann Ludwig Biller the ElderGerman Artist · 1656–1732
All works by this person →Johann Ludwig Biller the Elder belonged to one of the leading families of gold- and silversmiths that dominated Augsburg's artistic output from the mid-1600s through the mid-1700s. As Protestants, the Billers specialized in secular rather than church pieces, supplying table services for the royal courts of Northern Europe, including those in Russia, Berlin, Dresden, Sweden, and Denmark. Some of th
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1680–1700
- Medium
- Silver gilt
- Culture
- German
- Department
- Sculpture
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Two gilt silver stags with large antlers majestically pose on elaborate tiered bases with a pedestal. Probably originally designed as table ornaments, either facing or turning away from a large ornament or a *surtout de table* used during banquets at a hunting lodge, they brought the outdoors into the elaborate dining rituals of the court. Raising their heads and perking up their ears, the animals stand at the alert on a surface embossed to resemble a forest floor littered with leaves, twigs, and stumps of grass. Johann Ludwig Biller the Elder, a German silversmith who worked for the royal courts of Northern Europe, used a sand-casting technique to make the stags, modeling the pieces in sections and then adding finely tooled details.
The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.