Ceremonial scene with Abundance and Piping Pan

The painting comes from the Long Gallery at Croome Court, the decoration of which had been commissioned from Robert Adam by the sixth earl of Coventry and substantially completed in 1765. Sefferin Alken was the maker of the original frame (see 60.50b), which the Museum does not exhibit; his bill dates to August of that same year and the chiaroscuro must be more or less contemporaneous. It was acquired to hang over the mantel in the Lansdowne Room, surrounded by a slightly enlarged but original molding which, curiously enough, had been left empty. While the subject is in the antique taste, only Abundance, crowned with a wreath and supporting a cornucopia, and the piping Pan behind her can be identified.