After Pigalle, Mercure Attachant Ses Talonnières, 19th Century, Large Bronze

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Brown patina bronze sculpture depicting Mercury (Hermes), god of commerce, thieves and messenger of the gods, seated on a rock … Read more Brown patina bronze sculpture depicting Mercury (Hermes), god of commerce, thieves and messenger of the gods, seated on a rock tying his winged heel-piece. He is wearing a petasus, a winged hat, and his caduceus is resting on the ground. This sculpture, based on a model by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, shows a young god, naked and in motion. In a double-swivel position, he prepares to take off. The bronze, resting on a circular stepped base in griotte red marble, is signed on the terrace "Pigalle, 1745". The original of this sculpture was Pigalle's reception piece for the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture on July 30, 1744, which entered the Louvre between 1848 and 1850. Jean-Baptiste Pigalle: The sculptor of the Enlightenment A great French sculptor, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle was born in Paris in 1714. He worked on his art from an early age under the guidance of Robert Le Lorrain and later Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. Convinced that his art was the meaning of his life, he returned to Italy in 1734 to perfect his technique. On his return, he began his "Mercure attachant sa talonnière" (1740), which enabled him to enter the Beaux-Arts. His reputation soared among the Parisian aristocracy. Mme de Pompadour took him under her wing, and commissions poured in. Juggling between the Baroque and the Classical, he painted portraits of Diderot and Voltaire, then created the famous funeral monuments for the Maréchal de Saxe (Strasbourg, completed in 1776). He died in Paris in 1785, leaving a remarkable body of work in his wake. See less