478 - A 1/5-scale replica of the sword from the equestrian statue of Francis I,

A 1/5-scale replica of the sword from the equestrian statue of Francis I, commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III, cast in bronze with a brown patina, in the Renaissance style with fleur-de-lis decoration; the scabbard bears a centered “F”’ of King Francis I, the guard featuring a scroll adorned with a romantic scene, signed in a rectangular cartouche “Sculpteur / Clésinger.” France, Second Empire period. L. 50 cm. History This scaled-down sword is likely one of the components of the equestrian statue of Francis I commissioned in 1852 by Emperor Napoleon III from Auguste Clésinger (1814–1883) for the Cour Carrée at the Louvre. On May 31, 1853, the artist received a commission for a plaster model of the statue, scaled to the dimensions of the one at the Place des Victoires in Paris. The following year, the administration also commissioned him to create a model of the pedestal as well as a second cast of the bronze-plated plaster statue. Due to debts he had incurred, Clésinger’s studio on the Île des Cygnes was seized. In 1855, the completion of the work was therefore entrusted to Stéphane Petit, one of the sculptor’s assistants. The plaster model, bronzed at the government’s expense, was finally installed between 1855 and 1857 in the center of the Cour Carrée at the Louvre, on a pedestal designed by Hector-Martin Lefuel. Despite this installation, the project did not result in a bronze casting, and the work was ultimately destroyed on May 11, 1897, after having been stored in the reserves of the Palais de l’Industrie. Smaller bronze versions were produced by Barbedienne.