Lot n° 110
Estimation :
2000 - 3000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 5 200EUR
Jean-Baptiste PIGALLE (1714–1785), after - Lot 110
Jean-Baptiste PIGALLE (1714–1785), after
Mercury Fastening His Ankle Straps
A major sculpture in white marble.
Rests on a circular, molded wooden pedestal.
19th-century work, based on the model created by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle in 1744.
H_61 cm (excluding base) H_72 cm (total).
This composition is one of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle’s most famous works. The sculptor presented an initial model of Mercury when he was admitted to the Royal Academy in 1741, then exhibited a plaster version at the 1742 Salon. The final marble sculpture, completed in 1744, served as his admission piece to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture on July 30, 1744. The model was a tremendous success. Philibert Orry, Director General of the King’s Buildings, commissioned a monumental version as early as 1742. The large marble sculpture was subsequently presented by Louis XV to Frederick II of Prussia, along with its companion piece, the Venus, and installed at Sanssouci in 1752. Pigalle also created a monumental lead version in 1753, now housed at the Louvre
Related Works:
- Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, Mercury Fastening His Heel Straps, 1744, marble, H. 58 × W. 35.5 × D. 33 cm, Louvre Museum, inv. MR 1957; N 15437. This is Pigalle’s graduation piece and the direct model for our sculpture.
- Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, Mercury Fastening His Heel Straps, 1753, lead, H. 187.1 cm, signed and dated on the base “Pigalle / 1753,” Louvre Museum, inv. RF 3023.
- Louvre Museum Casting Workshop, after Pigalle, Mercury Fastening His Heel Strap, patinated plaster, ca. 1937, H. 57 cm, Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, inv. MOU.07047.
- Another version after Pigalle, in bronze, height 54 cm, on a gray marble base, is held in the collections of the CCI Nantes Saint-Nazaire, inv. 2012.21.
Comparative Bibliography:
- Michael Levey, *Eighteenth-Century Art*, Paris, Flammarion, 1993, no. 138, p. 139;
- Guillaume Faroult, Guilhem Scherf, Christophe Leribault et al., *L'Antiquité rêvée: Innovations et résistances au XVIIIe siècle*, Paris, Gallimard / Musée du Louvre, 2010, no. 18, p. 141.
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