Jean-Jacques Pradier, called James

By repute, acquired from Villa Crivelli, Arese, in the 1970s

Known primarily in bronze versions, La naissance de l’amour is among Pradier’s most playful and sensuous compositions. Pradier writes in a letter to Juliette Drouet, dated 15 July 1838, that he modelled the group in his bed, and that he was planning to send a bronze version to the Duke of Orleans, for when the princess was in childbirth. Reimagining the mythological emergence of Venus from a shell, Pradier has the goddess give birth to her son Cupid, the god of love, within an open clam. Of delicate dimensions, the model is known in several bronze casts, as well as in plaster and biscuit.

This exquisite marble version is a rare adaptation of Pradier’s model in this material. It elaborates the composition with the addition of intricately carved dolphins populating the foamy waves below the shell. The sculptor of the present work shows astonishing technical skill in the surface texturing of the marble, rendering the water of the sea with a glistening polish.

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Lapaire, James Pradier (1790-1852) et la sculpture française de la génération romantique, Milan, 2010, pp. 289-290, no. 121