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Lot Essay
Representing a writhing Amazon warrior chained to a tree with the instruments of battle at her feet, the present marble figure is a fine testament to the skill of its creator, Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse. Through its careful attention to detail, and strikingly realistic and sensual representation of the female form, Amazone Captive is evocative of the finest sculptures of its era, while its complex pose and military attributes make reference to the works of Antiquity and of preceding generations.
In the Ancient Greek mythological tradition, the Amazons were a group of fierce female warriors known for their strength and ruthlessness in battle. Though they are depicted with some frequency in the European artistic tradition, Carrier-Belleuse appears to have treated the subject only through the present marble and its related works. The present lot is distinguished by its rarity: it is one of the few marbles of this scale by Carrier-Belleuse.
In his creation of the present figure, Carrier-Belleuse was almost certainly inspired by the literary and artistic precedent set by his and preceding generations of sculptors and painters. The present group bears the strongest resemblance to the depictions of two famed, imprisoned mythological heroines who found themselves chained to rocks: Andromeda before being freed by Perseus (drawn from Ovid’s Metamorphoses) and Angelica before being freed by Roger (drawn from Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso). Examples of both scenes abound in the French artistic tradition, many with figures contorted in manners similar to the present marble.
Hargrove suggests that Amazone Captive was inspired by Ancien Régime sculptor, Augustin Pajou’s Psyché abandonnée, dated 1790 and today in the collections of the Musée du Louvre (M.R. SUP.620) (J. Hargrove, The Life and Work of Albert Carrier-Belleuse, New York, 1977, p. 233). When the plaster for Pajou’s figure was first shown at the Salon of 1785, it caused a great scandal because of its overt nudity and suggestive pose, ultimately being withdrawn from the exhibition. Indeed, the figure’s contrapposto and tumbling locks of hair would likely have shocked a late 18th century audience, but it was, no doubt, these attributes that appealed to Carrier-Belleuse and which are manifest in the present lot. Hargrove has further suggested, however, `Carrier-Belleuse added a mannered lushness to Pajou’s idea; the Amazone’s hips and painfully bent knee jut away from the point of her forlorn captivity. Her `antique’ profile is broken by irregular shocks of hair’ (J. Hagrove, op. cit., p. 233).
Though inspired by Pajou, the present marble is also clearly a work of its own era as evidenced by similar works by Carrier-Belleuse including his representation of Ondine, presented at the Salon of 1864 and of which a bronze edition is illustrated in J. Hargrove and G. Grandjean, Carrier-Belleuse Le Maître de Rodin, exhibition catalogue, Palais de Compiègne, Compiègne, 2014, cat. 16, p. 37. Amazone Captive can also compared to the overtly sensual representations of the female form by Carrier-Belleuse’s contemporaries such as Jean-Baptiste (dit Auguste) Clesinger’s Femme piquée par un serpent, shown at the Salon of 1847 in the years immediately prior to Carrier-Belleuse’s debut in 1850, and today in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, (RF 2053).
In a departure from some of his confrères, Carrier-Belleuse was actively involved in the sale of his works, often at auction. Hargrove suggestes that Carrier-Belleuse specifically created a marble Amazone Captive for the 1868 sale (no. 3) (J. Hargrove, op. cit., p. 233). It is quite possible this is the present work, especially considering that the marble is signed `A. CARRIER’, a signature Carrier-Belleuse is known to have used until circa 1868, the year of the aforementioned sale. In addition to the present marble, several reductions of this figure are known in bronze measuring 24 and 75 cm. high as well as a smaller marble measuring 71 cm.
In the Ancient Greek mythological tradition, the Amazons were a group of fierce female warriors known for their strength and ruthlessness in battle. Though they are depicted with some frequency in the European artistic tradition, Carrier-Belleuse appears to have treated the subject only through the present marble and its related works. The present lot is distinguished by its rarity: it is one of the few marbles of this scale by Carrier-Belleuse.
In his creation of the present figure, Carrier-Belleuse was almost certainly inspired by the literary and artistic precedent set by his and preceding generations of sculptors and painters. The present group bears the strongest resemblance to the depictions of two famed, imprisoned mythological heroines who found themselves chained to rocks: Andromeda before being freed by Perseus (drawn from Ovid’s Metamorphoses) and Angelica before being freed by Roger (drawn from Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso). Examples of both scenes abound in the French artistic tradition, many with figures contorted in manners similar to the present marble.
Hargrove suggests that Amazone Captive was inspired by Ancien Régime sculptor, Augustin Pajou’s Psyché abandonnée, dated 1790 and today in the collections of the Musée du Louvre (M.R. SUP.620) (J. Hargrove, The Life and Work of Albert Carrier-Belleuse, New York, 1977, p. 233). When the plaster for Pajou’s figure was first shown at the Salon of 1785, it caused a great scandal because of its overt nudity and suggestive pose, ultimately being withdrawn from the exhibition. Indeed, the figure’s contrapposto and tumbling locks of hair would likely have shocked a late 18th century audience, but it was, no doubt, these attributes that appealed to Carrier-Belleuse and which are manifest in the present lot. Hargrove has further suggested, however, `Carrier-Belleuse added a mannered lushness to Pajou’s idea; the Amazone’s hips and painfully bent knee jut away from the point of her forlorn captivity. Her `antique’ profile is broken by irregular shocks of hair’ (J. Hagrove, op. cit., p. 233).
Though inspired by Pajou, the present marble is also clearly a work of its own era as evidenced by similar works by Carrier-Belleuse including his representation of Ondine, presented at the Salon of 1864 and of which a bronze edition is illustrated in J. Hargrove and G. Grandjean, Carrier-Belleuse Le Maître de Rodin, exhibition catalogue, Palais de Compiègne, Compiègne, 2014, cat. 16, p. 37. Amazone Captive can also compared to the overtly sensual representations of the female form by Carrier-Belleuse’s contemporaries such as Jean-Baptiste (dit Auguste) Clesinger’s Femme piquée par un serpent, shown at the Salon of 1847 in the years immediately prior to Carrier-Belleuse’s debut in 1850, and today in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, (RF 2053).
In a departure from some of his confrères, Carrier-Belleuse was actively involved in the sale of his works, often at auction. Hargrove suggestes that Carrier-Belleuse specifically created a marble Amazone Captive for the 1868 sale (no. 3) (J. Hargrove, op. cit., p. 233). It is quite possible this is the present work, especially considering that the marble is signed `A. CARRIER’, a signature Carrier-Belleuse is known to have used until circa 1868, the year of the aforementioned sale. In addition to the present marble, several reductions of this figure are known in bronze measuring 24 and 75 cm. high as well as a smaller marble measuring 71 cm.