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Premium Hôtel des Ventes de Monte-Carlo
50
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ANTIQUE-STYLE CHILD’S BUST, KNOWN AS THE YOUNG JULIO-CLAUDIA…
See original version (French)
50
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ANTIQUE-STYLE CHILD’S BUST, KNOWN AS THE YOUNG JULIO-CLAUDIA…
See original version (French)
Estimate €8,000 - €12,000
Voluntary lot
Description
ANTIQUE-STYLE CHILD’S BUST, KNOWN AS THE YOUNG JULIO-CLAUDIAN PRINCE
Late 18th–early 19th century
Depicted as a bust, with his head slightly tilted and turned to the left, the beardless young boy with a round face and a pensive expression is styled in the Julio-Claudian fashion, with short locks combed in comma-shaped waves across his forehead. He is draped in an antique-style cloak fastened over the left shoulder with a round fibula, falling in loose folds across his chest. The whole piece rests on a moulded, turned pedestal, carved in one piece with the bust.
The hairstyle and iconographic treatment are inspired by portraits of princely children of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (Gaius and Lucius Caesar, the young Germanicus, Britannicus), which were disseminated in the modern era through engravings and casts in the wake of the Neoclassical taste for cabinets of antiquities and garden statuary. Lead, the material of choice for European ornamental workshops of the 18th and 19th centuries — exemplified in England by John van Nost and John Cheere, and in France by decorative castings intended for gardens and orangeries — gives the work its characteristic patina, blending bluish-grey tones with white efflorescence.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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