FRENCH OR ITALIAN, 18TH CENTURY

It seems likely that the present terracottas are bozzetti for large-scale statues to be executed in marble or stone, very possibly - given their aquatic iconography - for a garden fountain. Although their style, and especially their delicacy of handling, suggests an artist familiar with the work of Clodion, they could be Italian rather than French. In that case, one might think in terms of a Venetian sculptor, such as Pietro Baratta, whose celebrity as a designer of garden statuary led to commissions from as far afield as St. Petersburg (Androssov, loc. cit.). Another possibility might be Jean Baptiste Boudard, a French sculptor active in Northern Italy, who executed garden statuary for the Parco Ducale in Parma (Consigli Valente, loc. cit.).