A Pair of Belgian Over Life-Size Terracotta Busts of a Bacchanalian Figure and a Faun, Signed by Gilles-Lambert Godecharle (1750-1835) One Dated 1781

both signed Godecharle at the front lower edge of the drapery, the bacchanalian figure also dated 1781.

Château de Meudon, Neder-ver-Heembeck, Brussels

Collection of Raymond Vaxelaire, Brussels, 1928

Daniel Katz, Ltd. London, 1990

M. Devigne, "Laurent Delvaux et ses eleves,", in Memoires de L'Academie Royale de Belgique, Brussels, 1928

Broken and repaired throughout. Remains of orange / terracotta color slip or polychromy on surface. Some losses throughout including parts of leaves in crowns and some edges of drapery. Extensive restorations throughout. Larger restoration visible on back of faun where breaks are repaired, including back and his cloak of fur. Drapery to bacchanalian figure also extensively restored. However, they are beautifully modeled and detailed; while they do need attention they can be conserved and they are stable. Surfaces should be made more uniform. Both with apertures to tops of heads for firing. Backs partially open. The lot includes a pair of later painted pedestals.
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The present busts were most likely commissioned for the château of a prominent Belgian family. In her authoritative study of Godecharle's career, Devigne (op.cit.) explains that the chateau de Meuden (destroyed in 1930) was the property of chevalier Antoine-Jean-Hyacinthe de Beughem de Capelle, a member of a prominent patrician family in Brussels. In 1776 he sold the castle to Augustin-Juste Scockaert, comte de Tiremont. Baron de Gaesbeek.de Beughem later repossessed the property and his heirs sold the castle to an M. Benard who later sold it to a Mme la baronne de Haultepenne, née Vandewerve in 1844.

 

Godecharle's style of modeling combines the baroque, rococo and neo-classical and he often reinterpreted the work of the masters, such as Bernini and Houdon. He also studied classical antiquity during his sojourn in Rome in 1773 where Godecharle clearly familiarized himself with the Apollo Belvedere, after which this bacchanalian bust is modeled. The robust faun recalls the tradition of Flemish 17^th century terracotta sculpture with its engaging and caricatured expression. In the present busts, a sense of honesty and immediacy is apparent, underscored by the lively treatment of the eyes, a characteristic also evident in Godecharle's portrait busts, see J. van Lennep, Catalogue de La Sculture. Artists nes entre 1750 et 1882, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, 1992, pp. 227-233.

 

Gilles-Lambert Godecharle was the most gifted of Laurent Delvaux's students. He was accepted by the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and subsequently worked with the most prominent French and Netherlandish sculptors of the 18^th century including Houdon, Pigalle and the Antwerp sculptor Tassaert (with whom he worked for Frederick the Great in  Berlin). His most important independent commission in Brussels was the program of decorative sculpture for the Parc and Place Royale, commissioned by Charles de Lorraine and begun in 1780. In 1781, the year these busts were made, Godecharle gained an important public commission for the pediment of the Palais de la Nation which brought him great recognition. He was quickly requested to work on the façade and interior decoration of the Palais de Laeken by the Arch Duchess Marie-Christine in which he depicted subjects like the Months and various mythological scenes and figures, likely similar to the present pair of busts.

See A. Jacobs, Lauren Delvaux, Paris , 1999, and A. Wauters, Histoire des environs de Bruxelles, Brussels (1855), reprinted 1972.