- 488
After a model by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle
Estimate
7,000 - 9,000 USD
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Description
- Jean-Baptiste Pigalle
- Mercury attaching his wings to his ankles
- terracotta
- height 20 in.; 51 cm
Exhibited
Washington, New York, Cambridge 1979-1982, no. 83 (illus.)
Catalogue Note
RELATED LITERATURE
Réau 1950, p. 151; MMA Bulletin 1991/92, pp. 10-11
Pigalle presented his morceau de réception, the marble of Mercury now in the Louvre, to the Academy in 1744. With its pendant, Venus, this composition became immediately popular and replicas were made in a variety of media, including a large marble pair given by Louis XV as a gift to Frederick II of Prussia.
A patinated terracotta version of Mercury of nearly the same size is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.