Description
Equestrian group representing Louis XIV after Martin van den Bogaerts, known as Martin Desjardins; standing on a brown tortoiseshell and engraved brass base decorated with quartefoils in lozenges, the uprights with cornucopia-shaped falls, decorated with canals and lion's heads (small missing at the back). Signed in bronze and wood by Escalier de cristal in Paris. Louis XIV style, 19th century. H : 66 cm, W : 54 cm, D : 20 cm Bibliographical references M. Martin, Les Monuments équestres de Louis XIV, Paris, 1986. A. and D. Masseau, L'Escalier de cristal, Saint-Remy-en-l'Eau, 2021. Martins Desjardins had originally planned to create two equestrian statues of Louis XIV in the 1680s. Only the monument for the city of Lyon was finally executed (a reduction of the Aix-en-Provence model was sold in Paris, Sotheby's, October 18, 2006, lot 18). The statue still adorns the Place Bellecour and illustrates the "propaganda enterprise" of the French monarchy, whereby Louis XIV, at the height of his glory, commissioned the erection of an equestrian statue of himself in ten major cities, including Paris (Place des Victoires), Dijon and Rennes. Several reductions were probably made in the late 17th or early 18th century. The Escalier de cristal company, run by brothers Henry and Georges Pannier, offered the Louis XIV resting on plinths to be chosen by the customer, either in Boulle marquetry or in marble; the so-called "rich" plinth in Boulle marquetry is well described in Henry Pannier's (1855-1935) "carnet bleu" with "cornes d'abondance" (A. and D. Masseau, L'Escalier de cristal, Saint-Remy-en-l'Eau, 2021, p. 263 (ill.). Larminet Davioud Collection.
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Equestrian group representing Louis XIV after Martin van den Bogaerts, known as Martin Desjardins; standing on a brown tortoiseshell and engraved brass base decorated with quartefoils in lozenges, the uprights with cornucopia-shaped falls, decorated with canals and lion's heads (small missing at the back). Signed in bronze and wood by Escalier de cristal in Paris. Louis XIV style, 19th century. H : 66 cm, W : 54 cm, D : 20 cm Bibliographical references M. Martin, Les Monuments équestres de Louis XIV, Paris, 1986. A. and D. Masseau, L'Escalier de cristal, Saint-Remy-en-l'Eau, 2021. Martins Desjardins had originally planned to create two equestrian statues of Louis XIV in the 1680s. Only the monument for the city of Lyon was finally executed (a reduction of the Aix-en-Provence model was sold in Paris, Sotheby's, October 18, 2006, lot 18). The statue still adorns the Place Bellecour and illustrates the "propaganda enterprise" of the French monarchy, whereby Louis XIV, at the height of his glory, commissioned the erection of an equestrian statue of himself in ten major cities, including Paris (Place des Victoires), Dijon and Rennes. Several reductions were probably made in the late 17th or early 18th century. The Escalier de cristal company, run by brothers Henry and Georges Pannier, offered the Louis XIV resting on plinths to be chosen by the customer, either in Boulle marquetry or in marble; the so-called "rich" plinth in Boulle marquetry is well described in Henry Pannier's (1855-1935) "carnet bleu" with "cornes d'abondance" (A. and D. Masseau, L'Escalier de cristal, Saint-Remy-en-l'Eau, 2021, p. 263 (ill.). Larminet Davioud Collection.
