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Lot Essay
This previously unrecorded equestrian portrait of Louis XIII is one of the few such existing bronzes of the period, thus making it an important historical record. Executed with a meticulous attention to all the details of the harness, armour and saddle blanket, the bronze is also a striking portrait of the young king.
The birth of Louis XIII in 1601 was of huge importance because it secured the Bourbon dynasty begun by his father Henri IV. However, in 1610, Henri IV was dead at the hands of an assassin, and Louis became king under the regency of his mother Marie de' Medici. One of the most important monuments of the time was the large bronze statue of Henri IV on horseback, designed by Giambologna but actually executed by Pietro Tacca. This was eventually erected on the Pont Neuf in Paris in 1614 and was to have an enormous influence on the history of the equestrian portrait in France; like that monument, the present bronze seeks to propagate the image of the king as victor, holding a general's baton, and wearing a laurel wreath in his hair.
The portrait of Louis XIII seems to show him still as a young man, certainly not as old as in the bronze bust of the king in the Louvre, which probably depicts him circa 1640 (illustrated in J.-R. Gaborit ed., Musée du Louvre - Sculpture Français II - Renaissance et Temps Modernes, Paris, 1998, I, p. 111). Comparable images of the king can be seen on medals by Guillaume Dupré of circa 1623-26 (see Jones, op. cit., nos. 58 and 62), with the short curling hair and the single longer lock falling over the left shoulder, the moustache and goatee, and the elaborate ruff.
Dupré is, himself, an obvious candidate for the authorship of the present bronze group. The premier medallist of the French court in his day, Dupré was accustomed to working in minute detail, and the superb chasing of this bronze would suggest someone who had a medallist's or a goldsmith's training. Furthermore, Dupré was, from 1611, Premier Sculpteur to the Court, so would have been an obvious choice for such a commission. However, there is a bronze equestrian group of Louis's father, Henri IV, which has also been attributed to Dupré (see Auersperg, loc. cit.), and if one accepts that attribution then an attribution of this bronze to the same hand must be rejected. Although minutely observed, the present bronze has a somewhat stylised, courtly air which is lacking from the Henri IV. The latter bronze gives a more naturalistic impression, and is less concerned with the rendering of minute details.
Attributions of free-standing bronzes to Dupré remain a controversial area, because almost nothing which is firmly documented survives. It must also be noted that there are other sculptors working in bronze at the time whose oeuvres are only imperfectly understood today. Hubert Le Sueur, for example, worked at the French court until 1625, and there are certain similarities of proportion between the present bronze and the monumental bronze of Charles I in Trafalgar Square. However, Le Sueur's small bronze equestrian group of Louis XIII as a boy (see Avery, 1982, op. cit., no. 7, fig. 31b) appears to be even more stylised in its treatment of the subject.
What remains clear is that the present bronze is a rare survival of French royal portraiture in the early 17th century. Although sculptural images of the Sun King would abound in the second half of the century, contemporary portraits of his predecessor are scarce. The virtuosity with which this example has been rendered only adds to its importance.
The birth of Louis XIII in 1601 was of huge importance because it secured the Bourbon dynasty begun by his father Henri IV. However, in 1610, Henri IV was dead at the hands of an assassin, and Louis became king under the regency of his mother Marie de' Medici. One of the most important monuments of the time was the large bronze statue of Henri IV on horseback, designed by Giambologna but actually executed by Pietro Tacca. This was eventually erected on the Pont Neuf in Paris in 1614 and was to have an enormous influence on the history of the equestrian portrait in France; like that monument, the present bronze seeks to propagate the image of the king as victor, holding a general's baton, and wearing a laurel wreath in his hair.
The portrait of Louis XIII seems to show him still as a young man, certainly not as old as in the bronze bust of the king in the Louvre, which probably depicts him circa 1640 (illustrated in J.-R. Gaborit ed., Musée du Louvre - Sculpture Français II - Renaissance et Temps Modernes, Paris, 1998, I, p. 111). Comparable images of the king can be seen on medals by Guillaume Dupré of circa 1623-26 (see Jones, op. cit., nos. 58 and 62), with the short curling hair and the single longer lock falling over the left shoulder, the moustache and goatee, and the elaborate ruff.
Dupré is, himself, an obvious candidate for the authorship of the present bronze group. The premier medallist of the French court in his day, Dupré was accustomed to working in minute detail, and the superb chasing of this bronze would suggest someone who had a medallist's or a goldsmith's training. Furthermore, Dupré was, from 1611, Premier Sculpteur to the Court, so would have been an obvious choice for such a commission. However, there is a bronze equestrian group of Louis's father, Henri IV, which has also been attributed to Dupré (see Auersperg, loc. cit.), and if one accepts that attribution then an attribution of this bronze to the same hand must be rejected. Although minutely observed, the present bronze has a somewhat stylised, courtly air which is lacking from the Henri IV. The latter bronze gives a more naturalistic impression, and is less concerned with the rendering of minute details.
Attributions of free-standing bronzes to Dupré remain a controversial area, because almost nothing which is firmly documented survives. It must also be noted that there are other sculptors working in bronze at the time whose oeuvres are only imperfectly understood today. Hubert Le Sueur, for example, worked at the French court until 1625, and there are certain similarities of proportion between the present bronze and the monumental bronze of Charles I in Trafalgar Square. However, Le Sueur's small bronze equestrian group of Louis XIII as a boy (see Avery, 1982, op. cit., no. 7, fig. 31b) appears to be even more stylised in its treatment of the subject.
What remains clear is that the present bronze is a rare survival of French royal portraiture in the early 17th century. Although sculptural images of the Sun King would abound in the second half of the century, contemporary portraits of his predecessor are scarce. The virtuosity with which this example has been rendered only adds to its importance.