Property from a European private collection | Provenant d'une collection particulière européenne
Pair of busts ofﷺ Bacchus and Ceres | Paire de buste💝s de Bacchus et Cérès
Auction Closed
November 22, 02:50 PM GMT
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
Property from a European private collection
Attributed to Jean Raon (Paris 1630 - 1707)
French, Paris, circa 1700
Pair of busts of Bacchus and Ceres
marble, on white and red marble pedestals
Bacchus: 48cm., 18⅞in.
Ceres: 47.5cm., 18⅝in.
pedestals: 146cm., 57½in.
(4)
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Provenant d'une collection particulière européenne
Attribué à Jean Raon (Paris 1630 - 1707)
Paris, vers 1700
Paire de bustes de Bacchus et Cérès
marbre ; sur des gaines en marbre blanc et rouge
Bacchus : 48 cm ; 18 ⅞ in.
Cérès : 47,5 cm ; 18 ⅝ in.
Haut. des gaines : 146 cm ; 57 ½ in.
(4)
Paul Abadie (1783-1868), Paris;
his son Paul Abadie (1812-1884), Paris;
his son Pierre Abadie de Madiéres (1924-2009);
by whose heirs sold, Senlis, Muizo♓n et Le Coent, 21 Mar𒊎ch 2010, lot 84.
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Paul Abadie (1783-1868), Paris ;
son fils Paul Abadie (1812-1884), Paris ;
son fils Pierre Abadie de Madiéres (1924-2009) ;
vendu par ses héritiers, Senlis, Muizon et Le C🔯oent, 21 mars 2010, lot 84.
This lovely pair of busts, cut on the shoulders in the form of herms in antique style, represent Ceres and Bacchus as allegories of Summer and Autumn. Placed on polychrome marble pedestals, they allude to herm figures, notably the Four Seasons, made in 1687 under t🗹he supervision of Francois Girardon (1628-1715🥃) for the gardens in Versailles.
In 1683, the King acquired eleven herm figures at Vaux-le-Vicomte, to place them in the gardens of Versailles. This marked the beginning of a grand sculpture initiative that employed around fifteen sculptors. The herm figures from Vaux were designed by Nicolas Poussin, whereas Charles Le Brun and Pierre Mignard, peintres du Roi, executed the models for the ones in Versailles. Seven of the figures depicting divinities and mythological characters, were to be placed in the lower part of Latone’s parterre, ten mythological couples were displayed near the basin of Apollo and six Sages from Antiquity were intended for the Rond-Point des Philosophes.
In 1689, the ‘Mémoire des figures, groupes et termes de marbre qui sont dans les atteliers des sculpteurs et de l’estat où sont ces ouvrages’ (28 August 1689) as well as Mme Jourdain’s “Remarques historiques”, 1695 describe the sculptures in the Versailles gardeꦕns, indicating the nam𝕴es of all artists having participated in this enormous project.
François Girardon's name is associated with a series of eight herms, including the Four Seasons, for which he provided the models and acted as ‘maître d’oeuvre’. Derived from his drawings, Jean-Baptiste Poultier sculpted the marble of Cérès, Marc Arcis made Flora, Jean Degoullons et Jean Raon executed Bacchus, and François Lespingola Winter.
Thus, the memorandum indicates a payment in 1687: 'L'Automne, d'après le modèle de M Girardon, exécuté par le sieur Raon, peut estre fini dans six mois’. The terracotta model started by Jean Degoullons, was completed in marble by Jean Raon in 1695. Signed and dated Joannes Raon Parisiensis 1695, Bacchus was placed in the half-moon of the basin of Apollo the same year, where it can still be admired today (Maral, op.cit., fig. 162).
Son of a stone carver in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, Paris, Jean Roan was accepted into the Royal Academy in 1666, after his studies at the Saint-Luc Academy. During his stay in Italy from 1666 to 1669 as sculptor for the King at the Académie de France in Rome, he worked alongside Clerion and Lespingola. Upon his return, Jean Raon was admitted into the Academie Royale in 1672, and was named sculptor of the Batiments du Roi. For ten years he joined forces with Buirette and Lespingola, sharing the costs of materials and tools, collaborating on projects together. From 1694 onwards, Raon lived iꦏn an apartment in the Galéries du Louvre, where he remained until his death.
Jean Roan also sculpted a series of the Four muses, Thalia, Terpsichore, Clio and Calliope for the park of the Château de Thoiry (Souchal, op.cit. 1993). The carving and style of the shoulders with raised borders compare to the present busts. The bust of Thalia, signed RAON, shows similarities with our Ceres: looking to the left, she is wearing a crown of vines, replaced here by a crown of wheat. Like our Ceres, her braids fall in sinuous curls onto her chest. Her counterpart, Bacchus, is remarkable for𝄹 the elaborate modelling oﷺf her hairstyle, composed of bunches of grapes and a necklace of vine leaves encircling her neck.
Two other herm figures of Bacchus and Ceres, almost identical to ours, are known: one belonged to the Louis Burat collection (🌺sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, june 17, 1937), and the other was formerly in the collection of Georges Hoentschel (sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 31 March 1919, lots 45 and 46, fig.1).
RELATED LITERATURE
A. Maral, François Girardon (1628-1715). Le sculpteur de Louis XIV, Paris, 2015, pp. 179-183, fig. 162; A. Lang, ‘Critical review of the French Sculptors’, Apollo, 1987, p. 377; F. Souchal, French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries - The reign of Louis XIV, vol. III, Oxford, 1978, pp. 219, no. 30 and p. 223, no. 44; F. Souchal, French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries- The reign of Louis XIV, supplément, London, 1993, p.183, nos. 47-51.