Lot 202: A BRONZE GROUP OF A BOY OBSERVING CUPID SLEEPING

A BRONZE GROUP OF A BOY OBSERVING CUPID SLEEPING
WORKSHOP OF BARTHELEMY PRIEUR (1536-1611) , EARLY 17TH CENTURY
On an associated ormolu-mounted, ebony-veneered square base; dark reddish brown patina with light brown high points
7½ in. (19 cm.) high, the boy; 11¼ in. (28.6 cm.) overall

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. Guiffrey, 'Testament et inventaire après décès de André Le Notre et autres documents le concernant', in Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art français, 1911, p. 217 - 282.
London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Catalogue of a collection of Italian Sculpture and other Plastic Art of the Renaissance, London, 1913, no. 26, pl. XXXIV.

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The present bronze group of A Standing Boy Observing Cupid Sleeping is related to a bronze described in André Le Notre's inventory in 1700 as part of a small group: 345. Item une autre figure de bronze représentant un Amour qui dort et un grand garçon quy le regarde, sur son pieds de bois, prisée 30 livres tournois. Another example of this composition, of identical size to the bronze offered here and formerly in the collections of Sir Alfred (1853-1906) and Otto (1865-1930) Beit, was exhibited in 1913 in the Burlington Fine Arts Club in London (loc. cit.). At the time, Wilhelm von Bode considered this bronze to be a late 16th century Florentine cast but Hans Weihrauch later ascribed it to the Master of the Genre Figures. Contemporary scholarship has attributed it to the French sculptor Barthelémy Prieur with whose work the present group compares in terms of style, subject matter and surface.