Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Château d'Armainvilliers,🌠 Oise, until 1980;

private European collection

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Collection du Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Château d’Armainvillඣiers, Oise, jusqu’en 1980 ;

Collection privée européenne.

An inscription to the reverse details that the sitter is a young girl of 5 and a half years old, which suggests this portrait may have been commissioned as a mortuary bust. Her eyes are wide open with incised pupils, her hair cascades elegantly down her proper left shoulder, and her lips are slightly parted. She wears a diadem with flowers and holds a bunch of flowers in her hand. Her robe is adorned by a finely decorated border which indicates skilled worꦍkmanship.

This charismatic bust is signed B.M. and dated 1696. A marble group of Hercules and Antaeus from the gardens of chateau du Lude, attributed to the sculptor Barthélemy de Melo and thought to have been executed circa 1691, also bears the signature of B.M. in capital Roman letters, although the letters overlap slightly. While little is documented about Barthélemy de Melo and his work, it is known that he originated from Flanders and settled his practise in Paris where he took on important church commission including the tomb of Michel de Marolles for the Saint-Sulpice church circa 1684. He also worked on sculpture commissions for Versailles and Trianon, including a standing figure of Mercury for the gardens of Versailles.

Stylistic comparison to de Melo’s work reinforces the attribution to the sculptor. The young child’s lively hair, fine drapery, and posture with one arm held at chest level compare to the figure of Pittacus&nbs😼p;that de Melo sculpted for the Versailles gardens (inv. no. 1850.9449).

RELATED LITERATURE

S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'École française sous le Règne de Louis XIV, Paris, 1906, pp.373-374;

F. Souchal, French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th Centuries. The Reign of Louis XIV, Oxford, 1987, pp.130-135;

J.-C. Boyer, ‘La statuaire des jardins de Versailles : Mignard maître d'œuvre,’ in Versalia. Revue de la Société des Amis de Versailles, 1999, pp. 48-51