LOUIS-SIMON BOIZOT (Paris, 1743-1809)

IPHIGENIA, PRIESTESS OF ARTEMIS AND CHRYSES, PRIEST OF APOLLON Paris, ca. 1775 Bronze with shaded brown patina; cherry red marble H. 50 cm, W. 26 cm, D. 16 cm In 1770, at the Lalive de Jully sale, Louis- Simon Boizot acquired two terracotta busts by Michelangelo Slodtz representing Iphigénie and Chrysès (fig. 1). This pair of busts, presented at the Salon of 1759, is now in the Louvre. They are models of the two marble busts in the collection of the Académie in Lyon (fig. 2). A former student of Slodtz, who won the Prix de Rome in 1762 and was then director of the Sèvres factory from 1773 to 1780, Louis-Simon Boizot reinterpreted the model to create his own sculptures in Sèvres cookie or bronze. According to the legends, the priest Chryses granted asylum to Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon and priestess of Artemis. The figure of the priestess can be recognized by the veil held in place by a crown of flowers and that of the priest by the emblems that adorn the gold of his garment. Here, the laurel wreath, the thunderbolt and the beam. Another pair in bronze was part of the illustrious collection of Karl Lagerfeld (fig. 3).