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34. A carved bas-relief in lapis lazuli depicting Poetry and…
34
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34. A carved bas-relief in lapis lazuli depicting Poetry and…
Estimate €8,000 - €12,000
Voluntary lot
Description
34. A carved bas-relief in lapis lazuli depicting Poetry and Music
After a marble bas-relief by Jean Rousselet (1656–1693), dated 1686, depicting Poetry and Music Celebrating the Glory of King Louis XIV
Italy or France, late 17th-18th century
Mounted on a slate plaque; set within a later giltwood frame.
Plaque dimensions 20cm high, 15cm wide
With frame 44,5cm high, 38cm wide
The bas-relief presented here is after the reception piece executed by the sculptor Jean Rousselet in 1686 for the Académie royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, now conserved in the Louvre (inv. MR 2764, N 15415). The sculptor nevertheless adapted certain elements of the original composition, most notably replacing the portrait of the king with a decorative vase set upon a column.
Regarded as an exceptionally precious and rare material, lapis lazuli is a stone whose principal historic sources are located in the mountains of Badakhshan, in northeastern Afghanistan, where it has been mined since Antiquity. Transported to Europe along distant trade routes, it became highly prized from the Renaissance onwards for its deep, luminous blue, as well as for the golden inclusions of pyrite that can occur within the stone. When ground into powder, lapis lazuli produced the precious pigment natural ultramarine, one of the most costly pigments used in European painting; as a stone, it was employed for the creation of luxury objects, vases, cabinets, tables, jewellery and reliefs.
From the 16th century onwards, and especially under the Medici in Florence, and subsequently at the French court under Louis XIV, lapis lazuli became one of the favoured materials of pietre dure, associated with prestige, magnificence and the European courts' fascination with the rarest and most precious materials. Cardinal Mazarin, like Richelieu before him, was a great patron and collector of pietre dure. Louis XIV continued this tradition and, in 1668, brought Florentine lapidaries to Paris to work at the Gobelins and to train French craftsmen.
Comparative Literature
Carpentier-Vanhaverbeke, Valérie ; Scherf, Guilhem, Sculpteurs du roi. Les morceaux de réception à l'Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (1657-1791), Sculpteurs du roi. Les morceaux de réception à l'Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (1657-1791), Mare et Martin, octobre 2025, p. 200-203, p. 201 repr., cat. 37.
Les Gemmes de la Couronne, catalogue d'exposition, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 27 avril-23 juillet 2001, Paris, RMN, 2001/
S. Casteluccio, Les meubles de pierres dures de Louis XIV et l'atelier des Gobelins, Dijon, ed. Faton, 2007.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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