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Lot Essay
In mythology Polyphemus was a cyclops, one of the one-eyed race of giants. He features in the tale of Ulysses who, in the midst of his adventures around the Mediterranean, finds himself trapped with his companions by Polyphemus in a cave. The ingenius Ulysses gets the cyclops drunk, and puts a stake through his one eye, allowing them to escape.
The general positioning of the limbs, the rocky base and the exaggerated hands and feet of this marble are all closely related to a marble of the same subject by Corneille van Cleve, who studied in Rome for 6 years in his early career (see Souchal, loc. cit.). Although not attributable to van Cleve himself, the author of the present marble almost certainly drew upon the same sources of inspiration, and may also have been a French sculptor who worked or trained in Italy.
The general positioning of the limbs, the rocky base and the exaggerated hands and feet of this marble are all closely related to a marble of the same subject by Corneille van Cleve, who studied in Rome for 6 years in his early career (see Souchal, loc. cit.). Although not attributable to van Cleve himself, the author of the present marble almost certainly drew upon the same sources of inspiration, and may also have been a French sculptor who worked or trained in Italy.