Minerva Giustiniani

Minerva, goddess of wisdom, skills and warfare, was one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greco-Roman mythology. Here she is depicted wearing her typical helmet and aegis. The composition is after an ancient marble, known as the Minerva (or Athena) Giustiniani, named after the collection in which it was first recorded in 1631. In 1805 the marble was bought by Lucien Bonaparte and installed in the grand hall of his Roman residence, the Palazzo Nunez. In 1817 he sold it to Pope Pius VII who was at that time commissioning the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museums which opened in 1822 where the sculpture remains today.

Pierre Petitot was born on December 11, 1760 in Langres. He was the pupil of Claude François Devosges at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Dijon where he won the first prize for sculpture in 1784 allowing him to travel to Rome and study ancient sculpture. Whilst in Italy, Petitot created numerous marbles after antique models, an example of which is his Borghese Gladiator from 1787 today housed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Dijon. The present lot, however, was completed in 1795, after Petitot had returned to his native France. The year prior, the artist had been released from prison where he was jailed during the 'Reign of Terror' on suspicion of being a counter-revolutionary. However, following his release, Petitot was able to achieve success in his career despite the political instability of the successive regimes. He collaborated on the interior decoration of the Pantheon from 1792 to 1793, completed a marble Bust of Prince Eugene exhibited at the Salon in 1801 and worked on the funerary monument for Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette for the church of Saint-Denis in 1830. Petitot’s artistic legacy continued through his son, Louis (1794-1862), who also became a successful sculptor based in Paris, receiving commissions from patrons such as Napoleon III.