Lot 219
Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (French, 1714-1785), "Mercury Attaching His Winged Sandals", 19th/20th c., marble, unsigned, height 24 in., width 12 in., depth 13 in., on a circular black marble base Note: This uninscribed marble exactly follows the forms and dimensions of the small version (at the Louvre, Paris) of Pigalle's most famous work, of which he composed a terrcotta model in Lyon in c. 1740 (probably the version now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York); in 1744 he was made a full member of the Académie Royale upon his presentation of the small marble now in the Louvre. A royal commission for a life-size version was completed in marble in 1748, and was presented by King Louis XV to Frederick the Great of Prussia (now Berlin, Nationalgalerie). The work has always been considered one of the most successful sculptures of the 18th c. It took on a sort of second life-represented by aplaster of this same size-as the centerpiece of the great painting by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) called Les Attributes des Arts of 1766 (versions in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts).
Starting Bid: $700
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