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Biscuit sculpture (Sèvres signature) representing the mythological scene of Aeneas* carrying his father Anchises, himself holding the Palladion, at their side his son Ascanius; after the marble statue made by Pierre Lepautre** from 1697 and kept at the Louvre Museum, from the 19th century.
This sculpture is in good condition, signed underneath. Marked "P LePautre fecit" on the terrace (like the original).
Please note: some dirt and wear on the biscuit, wear from time, see photos.
* Mythological scene from Virgil's Aeneid, where the hero Aeneas leads his family after the burning of Troy. The group shows three generations of Aeneas' family. The young man is Aeneas, who carries an older man - his father, Anchises - on his shoulder. At his side follows his young son, Ascanius. Anchises carries the statue of Pallas, which the ancient Greeks considered a token of public safety. The statue is said to have been fashioned by Athena herself after she accidentally killed her playmate, Pallas, and in memory of her. One day when Zeus was pursuing Electra, one of the Pleiades, she thought she would find protection by taking refuge with the statue, but Zeus, angered, threw the statue from the top of Olympus, all the way to Troad - where Troy was founded. According to legend, the statue fell directly into the temple of Athena then under construction. During the Trojan War, the soothsayer Helenus claimed that the city would only be taken if the Achaeans seized the Palladion, a feat that Odysseus and Diomedes succeeded in doing. But a Roman legend claimed that the two heroes only seized a copy, and that the real Palladion was transported to Rome by Aeneas.
is a French sculptor. Member of an important family of artists of the 17th and 18th centuries, he should not be confused with the architect and engraver Pierre Lepautre (1652-1716), his first cousin. Author of "Aeneas and Anchise" 1697, marble group after a wax by François Girardon, 2.65 m4; currently kept at the Louvre Museum (Richelieu Wing - Cour Marly).
