Lot 77: A CARVED MARBLE GROUP OF BIBLIS AND CAUNUS

AFTER THE ANTIQUE, PROBABLY FLEMISH, 18TH CENTURY Set on an integrally carved circular base. Little finger on his right hand and large toe from his right foot lacking; minor chips. 42 1/2 in. (107.3 cm. ) high LITERATURE COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique - The Lure of Classical Sculpture, New Haven and London, 1981, no. 26, pp. 189-191. A. Jacobs, Laurent Delvaux - Gand, 1696 - Nivelles, 1778, Paris, 1999, nos. S41-43. NOTES This marble group, usually identified as representing the brother and sister Biblis and Caunus, recalls the antique marble group found in 1711 at Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli. Although probably originally intended to represent Cupid and Psyche, the marble was restored by Pierre II Le Gros with the male figure turning in rejection of his companion (Jacobs, op. cit., p. 255). The antique marble, which belonged to the Medici emissary Count Fede, was one of the most celebrated antiquities of the early 18th century, and was copied twice by Laurent Delvaux, among others. The present marble group, although differing in detail from the documented Delvaux examples, appears also to be of Flemish origin. Pierre-Fran‡ois Le Roy (1739-1812), who worked under Delvaux in the early 1760s, has been suggested as a possible author for the present lot.