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Sculpture of Hercules in gilded bronze

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Sculpture of Hercules in gilded bronze

Estimate 1 000 - 1 200 EUR
Starting price 400 EUR

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For sale on Wednesday 03 Jul : 17:00 (CEST)
rome, Italy
Unicart SRL
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Laurent Delvaux (Ghent 1696 - Nivelles 1778), Rome, 1728-1732 The Farnese Hercules Terracotta figure Resting on a fully molded square base; signed L.D. F. ROMAE and engraved with the signature of the ancient Hercules: ΓλyκωnΑθηναίος εποίει (Glykon Athenaios epoiei) Dimensions: 51,8 x 20 x 17,5 cm (20 ½ x 7 ¾ x 6 ¾ in.) Provenance : Estate of Laurent Delvaux: on March 2, 1778, the work devolved by inheritance to Jean-Godefroid Delvaux; Brussels, Laurent Delvaux-de Saive collection; Louis Delvaux-Lauwers collection; Ixelles, Octave Delvaux-de Breyne (Willame) collection; Brussels, Mme Madeleine Verstraete collection; Then by descent to the current owner. Bibliography: G. Willame, Laurent Delvaux, 1696-1778, Bruxelles-Paris: G. Van Oest et Cie, 1914, p. 57, no. 51. M. Devigne, De la parenté d'inspiration des artistes flamands du XVIIe et du XVIIIe siècle. Laurent Delvaux et ses élèves, Mémoire de l'Académie royale de Belgique, Classe des Beaux-Arts, 2e série, II, fasc. 1, 1928, p. 10. A. Jacobs, Laurent Delvaux 1696-1778, Paris, Arthena, 1999, p. 106, fig. 32, p. 246, cat. no. S. 29, p. 206. A terracotta figure of the Farnese Hercules, by Laurent Delvaux (Gand 1696 - Nivelles 1778), Rome, 1728-1732 Along with his pupil Gilles-Lambert Godecharle, Laurent Delvaux (1696-1778) is the Flemish sculptor who best embodies the spirit of the 18th century. He was one of the first Flemish sculptors of his time to leave his native country in search of English patronage. He arrived in London in 1717, at the age of 21, and quickly won commissions for funerary monuments at Westminster Abbey. The 1720s were prosperous, and he worked actively alone or in collaboration with Peter Scheemakers le Jeune (Antwerp 1691-1781), expatriate for important English art lovers and collectors such as Lord Castlemaine, the Earl of Rockingham, Sir Andrew Fountaine and finally the 4th Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, where the most important private collection of sculptures by Delvaux is now housed. Thanks to Sir Andrew Fountaine's recommendation to the powerful Cardinal Lorenzo Corsini, who would ascend to the pontifical throne in July 1730 as Clement XII, Delvaux had little difficulty integrating himself into the Roman artistic milieu. By the time he arrived in Rome in 1728, he was already an established artist, a sculptor who had fully mastered his craft. His intention in traveling to Rome was to study the antiques and Baroque statuary. Delvaux stayed in Rome for four years, from 1728 to 1732, staying at the Palazzo Zuccari in Via Gregoriana, now home to the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max-Planck-Institut). Several terracottas, some signed or monogrammed in Rome, testify to his desire to penetrate the secrets of the emotion that contact with antique marble originals can arouse in an artist sensitive to the classical ideal. These include copies of the Apollino (coll. part.), Porcellino (loc. inc.) and Crouching Venus (loc. inc.) then kept at the Villa Medici, Venus maiden with shell (Brussels, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts), Hermaphrodite (loc. inc.) and the Eros and Centaur (loc. inc.) belonging to the Borghese Gallery, the Flora (Namur, Musée Groesbeek de Croix) and the Hercules visible in the Farnese Palace before they were transferred to Naples in the second half of the 18th century. Delvaux's reduced terracotta interpretations, most notably of the Farnese Hercules, are conscientious studies that attest to his mastery of modeling, as well as his dexterity in rendering with finesse and delicacy the smallest details of the original statue, the musculature, the curly hair and wispy beard, the lion's skin, right down to the knots in the wood of the heavy club. This figure of Hercules refers to a famous Roman marble, dating from the 3rd century A.D., currently at the Museo Nazionale in Naples, which itself originated from a bronze sculpture dating from the 4th century B.C., probably created by the Greek sculptor Lysippus of Sicyone. The Roman sculpture was discovered in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome in 1556, and acquired by Pope Paul III Farnese, hence its name Hercules Farnese. It was exhibited by the Farnese family under the arcades of the courtyard of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. This antique marble was certainly studied by Delvaux from small bronze engravings or marble copies during his stay in England, before he observed it in person during his trip to Rome in 1728. His talent as a copyist is also evident here in the rendering of the hero's grave expression. Despite its modest size, this terracotta has not lost its monumenal allure.