Silver Group…

…Designed in memory of the wedding of grand Duke Michael of Russia with Princess Cecilia of Baden.
The city of Karlsruhe has recently given commission for a piece of art which we would be sorry not to reproduce here. The work is now kept in St. Petersburg; it is a tribute from the city to Princess Olga Feodorovna, Princess Cecilia of Baden, The Grand Duke’s sister, on the occasion of her wedding to Prince Michael of Russia, brother of Emperor Alexander. This composition, very much in the German taste, is the work of two distinguished artists: Mr. Bayer, who did the plaster model, and Mr. Bauer, who made the sculpture, with great skill in the rendering of the various shapes.
Here is the subject: a rider, dressed as a knight of the Middle Ages, rides his palfrey, taking his fiancee with him, under the protection of two angels who accompany him on each side. These words by the psalmist give this kind of kidnapping its true meaning: “The Lord has instructed his angels keep you in the path of your life.”
The pedestal which supports this group is decorated with rich and brilliant sculptures. Allegorical figures show, on one side – which is the one we’re reproducing – elves lamenting the leaving of the princess, treasure of their country; On the other side are joy and triumph, busting in a romantic show of feeling amongst another group of elves, who are welcoming their prince and the August fiancee to the sound of fantastic instruments, with which the sculptor kitted them out. This forms a whole poem which would be easy to write, and which includes every tone, from the heroic note to the merry verse of the epithalam:
O hymœnœ, hymen.
 
Extract from L’Illustration, N° 769 on 21 November 1857.