Lot 94: ATTRIBUTED TO DOMENICO GUIDI (1625-1701)ITALIAN, ROME, CIRCA 1677

STUDY FOR THE MONUMENT TO LOUIS PHLYPEAUX, MARQUIS DE LA VRILLIRE (1598-1681) terracotta 21cm., 8¼in.

This fine terracotta appears to be a preliminary study for Guidi's 1677-1679 funerary monument to Louis Phélypeaux, Marquis de la Vrillière, in the church of Saint Martial, Chateauneuf-sur-Loire. It has a freshness and plasticity, which would indicate that it was made as the sculptor initially formulated his composition. A more finished terracotta model for the monument can be found in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin (Giometti, op. cit., no. 6.M). Terracotta models became increasingly sought-after during the course of the 17th century, with Giovanni Battista Pamphilj stipulating to Guidi in the contract for the altar of Sant'Agnese, that he produce such a sketch and that it remain with the finished work in perpetuity (Barberini, op. cit. pp. 57-8). RELATED LITERATURE M. G. Barberini, 'Base or Noble Material? Clay Sculpture in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Italy', B. Boucher (ed.), Earth and Fire. Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova, exh. cat. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, New Haven and London, 2001, pp. 57-58; C. Giometti, Domenico Guidi 1625-1701. Uno scultore barocco di fama europea, Rome, 2010, pp. 234-235 and 293, nos. 36.S and 6.M