Attributed to GUILLAUME BERTHELOT (Paris, 1580-1648). "Boar". Bronze. It possesses report of Doña Rosario Coppel. Provenance: Important Spanish private collection. Measures: 18 x 21 x 8 cm. The wild boar has been conceived in full action, running towards its prey, with the front legs extended and the head raised with the open mouth showing the tusks. The hind legs rest on the rectangular base, also made of bronze, which acquires a figurative finish by simulating a landscape with leaves, flowers and small animals. Depictions of wild boars became very popular during the Italian Renaissance thanks to the archaeological discovery of a Hellenistic sculpture depicting the animal. The aesthetic characteristics of this work are close to the art of Guillaume Berthelot, a French sculptor who was active in Rome at the court of Paul V Borghese and in Paris in the service of Marie de Medici and Cardinal Richelieu. He went to Rome around the age of 25 (1610-17/18), where he received several commissions from Pope Paul V Borghese: A Madonna and Child on the colossal column erected in front of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, and Two bronze angels for the Pauline Chapel inside the basilica, as well as a Saint Paul for Urban VIII's loggia in the Quirinal Palace (and an angel for the Scala Regia of the palace), and a large Crucifix for the high altar of Santa Maria in the church of Vallicella. He was also involved in the restoration of the famous Borghese Gladiator. Back in France in 1618, he was appointed sculptor to the Queen Mother Maria de' Medici in 1620. He was employed by the Queen Mother and Richelieu on the main decorative projects of the time, thanks to the Queen Mother's support (like many artists, he lived in a courtyard of the Palais du Luxembourg until 1642, before moving to rue Férou) and thanks to the friendship of the architect Jacques Lemercier. In particular, he made around thirty sculptures for the Luxembourg Palace and its gardens: in 1622, Maria de Medici commissioned him to make eight sculptures for the dome of the entrance pavilion to the Palace. In 1626, he sculpted a first effigy of Louis XIII, commissioned by Richelieu for the Château de Limours, then a second in 1635, for the entrance to the Château de Richelieu, surmounted by a bronze statue of La Renommée. In 1624, he was also responsible for the bronze ornaments for the high altar of the Carmelites of the Annunciation at Notre-Dame-des-Champs in Paris, under the direction of Jacques Lemercier. The marble bust of Gaston d'Orléans in the Louvre is also attributed to him.