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Lot Essay
This remarkably complex sculpture probably represents the 'immortality of Virtue', and recalls Ovid's Metamorphoses. Triumphal laurels entwine 'Virtue', in the form of a nymph, who escapes the grasp of Father Time by transforming into an oak tree, a symbol of strength or constancy. At the feet of Father Time, the labyrinth represents the complex path of life which is, ultimately, subordinate to him. Virtue, however, eludes Time and is therefore superior to it.
The allegorical composition is reminiscent of a type made famous by Cesare Ripa in his Iconologia, of l593, while the most relevant sculptural comparison can be made with Bernini's two celebrated marbles of Apollo and Daphne and The Rape of Proserpina (illustrated in Avery, loc. cit.), works which the author of this group must certainly have known. The proportion of the figures here are not, however, typically Italian, and it is more likely that this work is the product of a northern, probably Flemish, artist who was familiar with artistic trends in the south. Indeed, the popularity of this type of composition at the end of the 17th century cannot be doubted; in the gardens of Versailles, for example, Louis XIV commissioned four 'abduction' groups from the leading sculptors of his day, executed after designs by Le Brun, and destined for the Parterre d'Eau (see Souchal, loc. cit.). Like those groups, the present lot is both sculpturally and iconographically complex.
The allegorical composition is reminiscent of a type made famous by Cesare Ripa in his Iconologia, of l593, while the most relevant sculptural comparison can be made with Bernini's two celebrated marbles of Apollo and Daphne and The Rape of Proserpina (illustrated in Avery, loc. cit.), works which the author of this group must certainly have known. The proportion of the figures here are not, however, typically Italian, and it is more likely that this work is the product of a northern, probably Flemish, artist who was familiar with artistic trends in the south. Indeed, the popularity of this type of composition at the end of the 17th century cannot be doubted; in the gardens of Versailles, for example, Louis XIV commissioned four 'abduction' groups from the leading sculptors of his day, executed after designs by Le Brun, and destined for the Parterre d'Eau (see Souchal, loc. cit.). Like those groups, the present lot is both sculpturally and iconographically complex.