Lot Essay
This pair of bronzes is based on two large-scale marble statues, Pierre Lepautre's Atalanta of 1704 and Guillaume Coustou's Hippomenes of 1712, which were designed for the Gardens at Marly, and are now both in the Louvre. It is not known when the bronze reductions were first made, but examples are listed in the Silvestre Sale, Paris, 16 November 1778, lot 160, and in the B... Sale, Paris, 17 March 1788 (Souchal, 1981, op. cit., p. 379). The only differences between the marbles and the bronzes concern the fact that Atalanta has been equipped with a bow, as befits a huntress, and that Hippomenes' head looks down, while the positions of his arms have been reversed and somewhat modified.
Ovid's story of the race of Atalanta and Hippomenes, which the latter won by dropping golden apples which Atalanta could not resist stopping to pick up, was ideally suited to sculptors who wanted to create a pair of independent yet connected figures in action.
Ovid's story of the race of Atalanta and Hippomenes, which the latter won by dropping golden apples which Atalanta could not resist stopping to pick up, was ideally suited to sculptors who wanted to create a pair of independent yet connected figures in action.