After Louis Garnier (1638 - 1728) and Michel Anguier (1612 - 1686)

Palais Galliera, Paris, 9 March 1961 ;

Christie's Paris, 3 December2003, lot 712 ;

Where acquired.

The French Bronze 1500 to 1800, Knoedler & Co., New York, 1968, no. 19A & 19B.

The models for these bronzes are the work of two sculptors active in Paris in the mid-17th century, Michel Anguier's Amphitrite tranquille and Louis Garnier's Bacchus. Although by different artists, these models have often been paired because of their similar sizes, poses, and classical expression of their faces.

The model of Bacchus was engraved by Louis Desplaces (1682 – 1732) (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. RP-P-OB-63.865), who mistakenly attributed this figure to Pierre Garnier (F. Souchal, op. cit., pp. 3–4). The model of Amphitrite is part of a series of six bronzes of ancient gods and goddesses commissioned to Anguier, on his return from Rome in 1652, by Monsieur Montarsis. Anguier associated the goddess of the Ocean with a calm temperament and had initially paired her with Neptune; together, they symbolised Water among the Four Elements. The model was inspired by the figure of the goddess painted by his close friend, Nicolas Poussin, in The Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite (Philadelphia Museum of Art, inv. E1932-1-1). The sculptor also drew inspiration from classical statuary, notably from the Farnese Flora. First documented in 1693, a bronze of Amphitrite was given to Louis XIV (Louvre Museum, inv. OA 11897).

Several museums have paired bronzes of Amphitrite and Bacchus, including the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg (inv. H.CK-230 and H.CK231), and the Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden (inv. IX 62), the latter acquired in 1699 by Baron Raymond LePlat, inspector general of the royal collections of Saxony.

RELATED LITERATURE

F. Souchal, French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries: The reign of Louis XIV, London, 1977, pp. 3-4;

G. Bresc-Bautier, G., Scherf, and J. D Draper, Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, exh. cat. Louvre Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, 2009, pp. 204-207;

J. Warren, Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes in and around the Peter Marino Collection, London, 2014, pp. 10-11;

I. Wardropper, 'Michel Anguier's Series of Bronze Gods and Goddesses: a re-examination', in Marsyas, no. 18, 1976, pp. 23-26.