Attributed to Jean-Guillaume Moitte French, 1746-1810, French, last quarter 18th century

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Description

Jean-Guillaume Moitte
a set of three terracotta roundels of the labours of hercules

depicting Hercules and Hesione, Hercules and Hippolyta and Hercules and Diomedes

Catalogue Note

A pupil of Jean Baptiste Pigalle and of Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne, Jean-Guillaume Moitte won the 1768 Prix de Rome for sculpture. He started his career drawing designs for the silversmith Robert-Joseph Auguste. It was not until 1783 he finally started receiving commissions for several statues and low reliefs including decorations for tollhouses designed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. In 1795 he won the competition to create a monument to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Compare the treatment to the physiognamy of the figures in the present reliefs with the relief Fêtes á Palé included in the Paris Terracotta exhibition catalogue and also in particular with the Struggle between Ajax and Pollux.

RELATED LITERATURE
L’Esprit Créateur, de Pigalle à Canova, exh.cat., Musée du Louvre, Paris, pp.159-161