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Lot Essay
The pair of gilt-bronze stags offered here are almost certainly the same pair that were offered for sale in Christie's, London, 14 May 1970, lot 15 (sold for 6000 gns), although mounted on different bases, and then thought to have originated in the Louis XVI period. Little is known about the models upon which the two highly energetic stags are based, but considering the fact that each of their mouths has been drilled to formerly fit reigns it would suggest that they were once part of a larger composition that in all probability included the virgin hunter goddess, Diana.
Diana can be seen riding on the back of a stag as in the silver-gilt, enamelled and jewel-mounted Automaton Stag by Joachim Freiss of circa 1620 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, or depicted in a chariot drawn by stags as in the 5th century BC Attic red-figure krater in the Louvre, Paris attributed to the Painter of the Woolly Satyrs. References are also made throughout ancient literature of Diana riding on a chariot drawn by stags such as in the Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes who refers to 'Artemis (Diana), standing in her golden chariot driving off with her fast-trotting deer over the hills and far away to some rich-scented sacrifice.'
Unquestionably the most well known image of Diana with a stag, and possibly the inspiration for the modelling of the present bronzes is the antique marble sculpture of the Diana Chasseresse in the Louvre, Paris, that depicts the goddess holding a stag by the antlers as it rears on its hind legs. The marble was first recorded with certainty in Fontainebleau in 1586 and it has since been the inspiration for painted and sculpted images of the subject ever since.
Taking into consideration the proportions and modelling of the anatomy of the present stags, it is very likely that they were conceived sometime after the mid 17th century prior to which the representations of stags was much more static and less animated as in the Automaton Stag. They more closely resemble the stag in Ferdinando Tacca's second half 17th century group of Hercules and the Arcadian Stag in the Louvre, Paris, which has a similarly energetic and dynamic pose, a long muscular body and long slender legs.
Diana can be seen riding on the back of a stag as in the silver-gilt, enamelled and jewel-mounted Automaton Stag by Joachim Freiss of circa 1620 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, or depicted in a chariot drawn by stags as in the 5th century BC Attic red-figure krater in the Louvre, Paris attributed to the Painter of the Woolly Satyrs. References are also made throughout ancient literature of Diana riding on a chariot drawn by stags such as in the Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes who refers to 'Artemis (Diana), standing in her golden chariot driving off with her fast-trotting deer over the hills and far away to some rich-scented sacrifice.'
Unquestionably the most well known image of Diana with a stag, and possibly the inspiration for the modelling of the present bronzes is the antique marble sculpture of the Diana Chasseresse in the Louvre, Paris, that depicts the goddess holding a stag by the antlers as it rears on its hind legs. The marble was first recorded with certainty in Fontainebleau in 1586 and it has since been the inspiration for painted and sculpted images of the subject ever since.
Taking into consideration the proportions and modelling of the anatomy of the present stags, it is very likely that they were conceived sometime after the mid 17th century prior to which the representations of stags was much more static and less animated as in the Automaton Stag. They more closely resemble the stag in Ferdinando Tacca's second half 17th century group of Hercules and the Arcadian Stag in the Louvre, Paris, which has a similarly energetic and dynamic pose, a long muscular body and long slender legs.