D'APRÈS LEPAUTRE ET GIRARDON

Aeneas saving his father Anchises and his son Ascanius from the fire of Troy Bronze with a brown patina and occasional bronze highlights. France, 19th century H. 60 cm Rare reduction of a masterpiece of French sculpture at the time of Louis XIV, this bronze group shows us Aeneas, son of Venus and Anchises, armoured and helmeted, leaving Troy in flames carrying his father followed by his young son Ascanius, it constitutes a remarkable and dramatic baroque composition, influenced by Giambologna and Bernini. The subject is taken from the Aeneid, an unfinished poem by Virgil, and evokes the flight of Aeneas, when Troy fell to the Achaeans thanks to the famous trickery of Ulysses. Aeneas is depicted in a rearing position, leaning on his left leg, stepping over a fragment of architecture symbolizing the destruction of the city of Troy. He is carrying his father Anchises in his arms, the latter raising his eyes to heaven, simply dressed in a drape around his waist, wearing a cap, and holding the Palladium, the image of Pallas that will become the sacred emblem of the Romans. With his right hand stretched behind Aeneas' back, Anchises holds the wrist of the young Ascanius, turned towards the city and desperately looking for his mother Creüse, daughter of Priam, who has disappeared... This group is a high quality reduction of the original in white marble made between 1697 and 1716 by Pierre Lepautre from a wax sketch given to him by François Girardon in 1696. Executed during the artist's stay at the Académie de France in Rome from 1697 onwards, and transported to France in 1715 to decorate the garden of the Château de Marly, the original work is now in the Louvre (inv. n° 2028).