拍品專文
The Diane Victorieuse was Carrier-Belleuse's last work. She was first exhibited in plaster at the 1885 Salon; a marble of the same subject was then included in the Salon of 1887, the year of the sculptor's death and finally the bronze was exhibited in 1888. As his last sculpture the Diana Triumphant embodies the culmination of Carrier-Belleuse's art.
Diana, goddess of the hunt and the moon, was a favourite subject of Carrier-Belleuse's and one to which he returned several times, it is therefore no surprise to find the summit of his style personified in this most independent of goddesses. As with many of Carrier's nymphs the inspiration is Mannerist, but the rakish attitude is entirely contemporary with the artist. Moreover, the wit so evident in the haughty vanity of the goddess was a feature Carrier was able to exploit thanks to his well-established position as éminence grise of the Parisian sculpture world.
As a 'favoured last child', Carrier lavished loving care on his Diana Triumphant; her smooth naked expanses are daringly contrasted with the detailed attention to the boar's coat, the fluttering drapery, the feathered arrows and curling hair. She strikes a spectacularly extravagant pose, naked but majestic, like a king treading over her prey and her hand resting on her bow as though a sceptre, the other holding a fantastic horn. Like the femmes fatales prominent in the paintings of these final decades of the 19th century, this Diana is alluring not only for her obvious sensuousness, but also for her swashbuckling vigour, independence and menace.
Pinedo is known to have produced a bronze version of the Diane Victorieuse; the present example bears no foundry mark and has some variations to the marble and the terracotta versions included in the Los Angeles exhibition (op. cit.). Her drapery is modestly extended to just cover her pubic region and the horn is more successfully adapted, so that the flared mouth does not compete with her head, but is humourously transformed into a mock-Renaissance beast. The use of contrasting patination adds chromatic enticement to an already richly theatrical work, and the rotating socle permits us to admire Diana from all angles with ease.
Diana, goddess of the hunt and the moon, was a favourite subject of Carrier-Belleuse's and one to which he returned several times, it is therefore no surprise to find the summit of his style personified in this most independent of goddesses. As with many of Carrier's nymphs the inspiration is Mannerist, but the rakish attitude is entirely contemporary with the artist. Moreover, the wit so evident in the haughty vanity of the goddess was a feature Carrier was able to exploit thanks to his well-established position as éminence grise of the Parisian sculpture world.
As a 'favoured last child', Carrier lavished loving care on his Diana Triumphant; her smooth naked expanses are daringly contrasted with the detailed attention to the boar's coat, the fluttering drapery, the feathered arrows and curling hair. She strikes a spectacularly extravagant pose, naked but majestic, like a king treading over her prey and her hand resting on her bow as though a sceptre, the other holding a fantastic horn. Like the femmes fatales prominent in the paintings of these final decades of the 19th century, this Diana is alluring not only for her obvious sensuousness, but also for her swashbuckling vigour, independence and menace.
Pinedo is known to have produced a bronze version of the Diane Victorieuse; the present example bears no foundry mark and has some variations to the marble and the terracotta versions included in the Los Angeles exhibition (op. cit.). Her drapery is modestly extended to just cover her pubic region and the horn is more successfully adapted, so that the flared mouth does not compete with her head, but is humourously transformed into a mock-Renaissance beast. The use of contrasting patination adds chromatic enticement to an already richly theatrical work, and the rotating socle permits us to admire Diana from all angles with ease.