.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This famous Sèvres model is one of a pair, with Psyche, known as Amours Falconet after the plasters by Etienne Maurice Falconet, director of sculpture at Sèvres from 1757 to 1766. The figure of Cupid was originally conceived by Falconet in marble in 1755 and exhibited at the Salon of that year, with Psyche following in 1761. When he became director of the Sèvres manaufactory, Falconet adapted the model for biscuit porcelain.
The bases are often glazed, with inscriptions reserved against a variety of ground colours, most often bleu lapis or bleu Nouveau. They are also known in biscuit with the inscription enameled in blue. The inscription on the Champalimaud pedestal translates as 'Whoever you are, behold your Master, who is, or was, or shall be hereafter.'
For an exhaustive discussion of the genesis, sales records and other recorded specimens of this model see Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, Vol. II, pp. 823-834.
The bases are often glazed, with inscriptions reserved against a variety of ground colours, most often bleu lapis or bleu Nouveau. They are also known in biscuit with the inscription enameled in blue. The inscription on the Champalimaud pedestal translates as 'Whoever you are, behold your Master, who is, or was, or shall be hereafter.'
For an exhaustive discussion of the genesis, sales records and other recorded specimens of this model see Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, Vol. II, pp. 823-834.