IMPOSSIVE AND SPECTACULAR HANGER in white... - Lot 253 - Osenat

IMPOSSIVE AND SPECTACULAR HANGER in white marble and gilt bronze representing the "Coronation of Love" or "Love and Psyche" after the model of the sculptor Claude Michallon on either side of a terminal decorated in applique with a winged victory, The enamelled dial with date and Roman numerals for the hours, signed Lefevre Sucr De Belle in Paris, is set on either side of a terminal decorated with a winged victory, torches and palmettes, and on which Cupid and Psyche are leaning as they prepare to crown Love. It rests on a rectangular base, a white marble pedestal covered in doucine with a frieze of rais de coeur and a large counter-socle in sea-green marble veneer decorated with a mask of a woman crowned with laurel in a medallion formed of foliage and berries, in a frame of palmettes, scrolls of acanthus leaves and gilt bronze rosettes, finished with small runners. Empire period It bears on the reverse an inscription: Executed by J.P. Crugin - 1806 H. 97 cm, W. 48 cm, D. 24 cm (restorations, hair and chips on the dial) The figures of Psyche and Love are inspired by the model made by the sculptor Claude Michallon (1751-1799) (picture 1), executed after an antique marble Cupid and Psyche dated from the 2nd century B.C. (inv. MC0408), preserved in the Capitoline museum in Rome (picture 2). This model was a great success, due to the poetry emanating from the composition but also because of the subject linked to the theme of Time. Made in multiple versions: in gilded and patinated bronze and red griotte marble, which inspired Feuchère 1 and Thomire 2. This clock is to be compared with the examples preserved in the Marmottan museum (reproduction below), in the Ministries of War 3 and of the Navy in Paris 4, and in the Château de Fontainebleau 5. We can also mention examples illustrated in the works of Elke Niehüser 6 and Pierre Kjellberg 7. This theme will be taken up again by Canova (picture 3) such as the marble preserved in the Louvre and also realized in different forms. 1-Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, "Vergoldete Bronzen", 1986, p.669 1819 by Lucien-François Feuchère 2-Decorative bronze of Pierre-Philippe Thomire, Leningrad, 1984 p.59, n°. 114. Thomire 3-Hans Ottomeyer and P Pröschel Vergoldete Bronzen, t.1,, Munich 1986, p.350, pl. 5.7.1 war 4-E. Dumonthier, Les bronzes du mobilier national Pendules et cartels, p.17, Pl 49 5-Jean-Pierre Samoyault, "Pendules et Bronzes d'Ameublement Entrés Sous le Premier Empire", 1989, p. 56, pl. 12 6- Elke Niehüser, "Die Französische Bronzeuhr", 1997, p. 210, pl. 270 7- Pierre Kjellberg, "Encyclopedia of the French Clock from the Middle Ages to the XXth Century", 1997, p. 402