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Lot 54: A RECTANGULAR CARVED MARBLE RELIEF OF HERCULES

Est: £25,000 GBP - £35,000 GBPSold:
Christie'sLondon, United KingdomJuly 09, 2009

Item Overview

Description

A RECTANGULAR CARVED MARBLE RELIEF OF HERCULES
ATTRIBUTED TO THE WORKSHOP OF MICHAEL RYSBRACK (1694-1770), CIRCA 1740-60
Hercules recumbent in the centre and being disarmed by three putti; very minor chips to the edges
10¼ x 20 in. (26 x 50.8 cm.)

Artist or Maker

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
M. I. Webb, Michael Rysbrack Sculptor, London, 1954.
K. Eustace, 'Robert Adam, Charles-Louis Clérisseau, Michael Rysbrack and the Hopetoun chimneypiece', in The Burlington Magazine, Nov. 1997, pp. 743-752.

Notes

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
The present marble relief clearly originates from the immediate circle of Michael Rysbrack, the foremost sculptor in Britain for much of the 1730s, '40s and '50s. The languid pose of the hero, the muscular treatment of the body and the sophisticated execution in shallow relief of the tree in the background all find parallels in Rysbrack's oeuvre such as his Brittania receiving the riches of the Orient, made as the central panel of a fireplace for the East India Office (see Webb, op. cit., fig. 64). In fact, Rysbrack and his workshop had a lucrative business producing marble fireplaces and, compositionally, the present relief could almost act as a pendant to a fireplace relief executed by Rysbrack for Hopetoun House in Scotland (Eustace, op. cit., fig. 21). Interestingly, another fireplace, with a traditional provenance from Glamis Castle in Scotland (sold Sotheby's, New York, 26 April 2008, lot 134), has a central relief with a virtually identical composition, although that relief also includes the head of a boar beneath Hercules' proper right arm.

Auction Details

Important European Furniture, Sculpture & Clocks

by
Christie's
July 09, 2009, 12:00 AM GMT

8 King Street, St. James's, London, LDN, SW1Y 6QT, UK