Joseph Charles Marin (1759-1834) French, Paris, 1795

Paris, Salon, 1795, no. 1059 (entitled 'Tête de Cérès, terre cuite')

Overall the condition of the terracotta is good with minor dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. It is possible that parts of the wreath and/or hair may be reattached (a speck of glue is visible under the grapes on the proper left side). It is difficult to assess whether there have been reattachments/ restorations due to the wash over the terracotta. However, there are no signs of breaks to the interior. There is a slight firing crack to the interior on the left side.
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This beautiful neoclassical Herm bust of Ceres, goddess of the Earth, by Joseph-Charles Marin, protégé of Clodion, underscores the artist’s interest in textured surfaces. The long tresses of hair on the goddess’s smooth skin, and the varied surface of the wreath of grapes and vine leaves, which overlap the ears of corn crowning her head, are characteristic of Marin’s terracottas. A close comparison can be found in a signed bust of a young girl a l’antique, which was sold at Christie’s New York, 13 June 1987, lot 258. Like the Cérès, this bust is a rare large scale terracotta with a herm truncation. The girl’s hair is similarly crowned by a wreath (though of roses), whilst long tresses fall on her chest in an analogous manner to those in the present terracotta; note in particular the pointed ringlets at the forehead which are almost identical to those in the Cérès. Very few busts by Marin on this scale are recorded, another lifesize bust of a young woman by the artist was offered in these rooms on 6 April 1995, lot 73.

A further sylistic comparison is found in a small terracotta statuette of Cybele, mother of the gods (often conflated with Ceres), which is attributed to Marin and is in the Musée Cognacq-Jay (inv. no. J 236). Here, a similarly frontal earth diety is crowned by a wreath of abundance, her long tresses framing her breasts and therefore drawing prominence to her role as a fertility goddess; this latter device is also seen in the present bust. The emphasis on abundance and fertility, illustrated in both busts, is wholly in tune with the iconography of the French Revolution and both the Cérès and the Cybele are specifically evocative of descriptions of the Statue of Regeneration from the revolutionary festival of 10 August 1793. Ceres would consequently have been an appealing choice of subject for Marin at this time, particularly as she was the Roman goddess associated with the Plebeian class.

The present bust has a highly finished surface; finely worked terracottas such as this were particularly sought after in the latter years of the eighteenth century. The Cérès is recorded as having been exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1795, no. 1059 (Sanchez, op. cit. p. 1140).

RELATED LITERATURE
A. L. Poulet and G. Scherf, Clodion 1738-1814, exhib. cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1992, pp. 405-13, nos. 94-96; Joseph-Charles Marin 1759-1834, exhib. cat. Galerie Patrice Bellanger, Paris, 1992, pp. 54-5, 64-5, 72-3, nos. 16, 19, 22; J. D. Draper and G. Scherf, Playing with Fire. European Terracotta Models, 1740-1840, exhib. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art and Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2003, pp. 61-2, 136-8, nos. 26, 58; P. Sanchez, Dictionnaire des artistes exposant dans les salons des XVII et XVIII^eme siècles à Paris et en Province 1673-1800, vol. ii, Dijon, 2004, p. 1140