A fine and Rare patinated bronze sculptural group french, circa 1850

bronze, each with dark brown patina, set on gilt-bronze scrolled foliate bases, the larger figure depicting Aeneas carrying his father Anchises as they flee from Troy after Pierre Lepautre, the smaller groups depicting the rape of Arithyia by Boreas, after Gaspard Marsy and Anselme Flamen, and the rape of Perserpine by Pluto, after Grancois Girardon.

RELATED LITERATURE:
The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sculpture, J. G. Mann, London 1931, catalogue nos. S16Q and S170.
The French Bronze, 1500-1800, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1968, catalogue nos. 25 and 26.
F. Souchal, French Sculptors in the 17th and 18th Centuries, Vols. II and III, Oxford, 1981 and 1987, pp. 42, 43, and 66.

The present lot depicts three important sculptural groups; Aeneas and Anchises is based on the monumental marble of 1716 which is in the Tuileries Garden in Paris.  The side sculptures are reductions of two of the four rape groups designed by Le Brun for the Parterre d'Eau, forming part of the Colbert's 'Grande Commande' for sculpture to decorate the park at Versaille.  The group of Boreas and Orithyia was placed in the Orangerie in 1687 and subsequently moved to the Tuileries in 1716 where it remains today with that of Aeneas and Anchises.  Contemporary reproductions were popular and several bronze reductions are recorded in late 18th century sale catalogues.