Lot 40: A LOUIS XIV BRONZE GROUP REPRESENTING BACCHUS AND ARIADNE

BY CORNEILLE VAN CLEVE (1646-1752), CIRCA 1704
With a putto and a Bacchic panther devouring grapes at their feet, on a naturalistic plinth with vines and tufts of grass, on a further Louis XV ormolu plinth circa 1775 with stiff-leaf border above a gadrooned and pearled lower border, dark brown patina with warm medium brown high points
31 in. (79 cm.) high, overall; the plinth 19 1/2 in. (49 cm.) diameter

F. Souchal, French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries - The reign of Louis XIV, London, 1987, III, pp. 367-402, and Supplement, IV, 1993, pp. 195-196.
Berlin, Skulpturensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Von Allen Seiten Schön - Bronzen der Renaisance und des Barock, 31 Oct. 1995 - 28 Jan. 1996, pp.582-583, no. 226.

Possibly that exhibited by Van Cleve at the Paris Salon of 1704.
By repute, the Prince de Ligne, château de Beloeil.
By repute the Marquis de Ségur.
By repute Jean-Jacques Régis de Cambacères, duc de Cambacères, Archichancelier de l'Empire, presumably the hôtel de Roquelaure.
By repute the Marquis de Montebello, château de Metz.
Acquired from Guiraud et Guiraud Frères S., 20 January 1934.

The sculptor Corneille van Cleve came from a family of Flemish goldsmiths which had emigrated to France in the early 17th century, his grandfather having been naturalised by Henri IV. Although firm details of Corneille's early training remain scarce, he is thought to have trained with either Michel or Francois Anguier, and to have spent 6 years in Rome as a pensionnaire of the King. He would eventually succeed Coysevox as Chancellor of the Academy in 1720, and he had a long and successful career working particularly at Versailles, but also at other Royal and aristocratic residences (Souchal, op. cit., III, pp. 367-368).

In 1699, Louis XIV commissioned plaster models for four sculptural groups intended to adorn the four corners of the Bassin des Quatre Jets in the gardens of Marly. Originally these were to be executed by the sculptors Poirier, Poultier, Prou and Slodtz, but Van Cleve was later asked to submit a model of Bacchus and Ariadne to replace the the one produced by Prou (ibid, III, p. 142).

The project was later abandoned, and van Cleve's original conception - which probably included two standing figures - is unknown today. However, it almost certainly represented the artistic starting point for the present group, an example of which was presented two years later at the Salon of 1704 with a pendant group of Diana and Endymion.

Today, the present composition is known in only one other example, housed in the Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco (inv. no. 1931.154). As in the Salon of 1704, it is paired with a group of Diana and Endymion. The only other Diana and Endymion known today is in the Grünes Gewolbe Museum in Dresden, purchased by Baron LePlat for Augustus the Strong in 1715. There is a reference to a third pair, sold in the Le Rouge sale in Paris in 1818, however these bronzes are described as having an antique green surface; their present whereabouts are unknown.

The fact that Van Cleve came from a family of goldsmiths meant that he cast and chased many of his own bronzes, and the exquisite finishing of the present group is a testament to that fact. The surface is a beautiful warm brown colour aned there is a variety of levels of finishing, from the more organic areas of the panther and the base, which are mainly executed in the wax, to the superbly filed and chased passages of the upper body, face and hair of Ariadne. In this, the group corresponds extremely closely to the Diana and Endymion in Dresden, and it seems probable that the present bronze and the bronze in Dresden were cast as a pair, but split very early in their history.
Although unconfirmed to date, the present group of Bacchus and Ariadne seems to have belonged to some of the most important European families, including the the Princes de Ligne and the Marquis de Ségur. In the 19th century, the bronze was reputedly owned by the duc de Cambacères. This must refer to Jean-Jacques Regis de Cambacères, archichancelier de l'Empire who had furnished the hôtel de Roquelaure with furniture presented by Napoleon in 1807.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.