Folding fan, consisting of a frame of pierced and relief-carved ivory painted in watercolour and a leaf of leather, on which on the front with gouache a forest and river landscape with three nymphs is painted and on the back a house hidden among a thicket

Folding fan, consisting of a frame of pierced and relief-carved ivory painted with watercolour and a leather leaf, on the front of which a forest and river landscape with three nymphs is painted in gouache and on the reverse a house hidden among bushes. The leaf is mounted à l'anglaise. The cows farthest to the left are probably a reference to the region of Boeotia, literally the 'land of cows'. It is an area consisting of fertile plains in Central Greece. Here the cult of the Charites is said to have originated, which later spread throughout Greece. These Charites or Graces were goddesses of beauty and grace, who brought joy, beauty and creative power to both humans and gods. In archaic depictions they were still shown as three separate women wrapped in long robes, but in the 3rd century BC a depiction emerged from this, which is still followed today: three naked women holding each other by the shoulders, of whom two are shown frontally, while the third is shown from the back.