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An early 18th century French bronze figural group of Silenus and the Infant Bacchus after the antique image 1
An early 18th century French bronze figural group of Silenus and the Infant Bacchus after the antique image 2
Lot 61TP

An early 18th century French bronze figural group of Silenus and the Infant Bacchus
after the antique

Important Design
21 November 2018, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £15,000 inc. premium

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An early 18th century French bronze figural group of Silenus and the Infant Bacchus

after the antique
the bearded nude male figure cradling the child in his arms and leaning against a skin draped rustic tree stump, on naturalistic moulded square base, dark brown patina, raised on an acanthus cast gilt bronze scroll footed base,

the figure, 58cm high, 65cm high including footed base

Footnotes

Provenance:
Acquired by a private UK collector, Sotheby's, London, A Private Treaty Sale, 9 July 1992.

The present lot is a reduced version cast in bronze derived from the original antique marble sculpture discovered in Rome in the Renaissance and now in the permanent collection of the Musée du Louvre in Paris.

Greatly admired by artists and collectors and considered to be one of the masterpieces of antiquity, the marble was thought to have been carved by Praxiteles, the renowned ancient Greek Attic sculptor in the 4th century B.C.

In Greek mythology Silenus was known as the chief of the satyrs, a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus who roamed the woods and mountains. He is portrayed in the current lot holding his foster son, Bacchus, the god of wine, who is crowned with grape leaves.

A version of this composition in wax by Martin Carlier was in La Gallerie du Sr. Girardon by 1710 (Souchal. p. 81) and large marble versions were made by Flamen (now lost) and Maziere (Souchal. p. 278 & 114).

Comparative Literature:
F. Haskell & N. Penny,'Taste and the Antique', Yale U.P., 1981, no. 77.
F. Souchal, 'French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries: The Reign of Louis XVI, A-F'. Oxford, 1977; 'G-L', Oxford, 1981, 'M-Z', Oxford, 1987.
.

Additional information

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