A FRENCH BRONZE FIGURE OF PROMETHEUS, cast from a model by Jean-Jules Cambos, the standing naked man looking up to his left, holding thunderbolts in his hands, a slain eagle at his feet, on a circular naturalistic base signed CAMBOS and BRONZE GARANTI AU TITRE PARIS impressed in a roundel, and on a circular stepped red marble plinth (formerly fitted for electricity as a lamp), last quarter 19th Century

A FRENCH BRONZE FIGURE OF PROMETHEUS, cast from a model by Jean-Jules Cambos, the standing naked man looking up to his left, holding thunderbolts in his hands, a slain eagle at his feet, on a circular naturalistic base signed CAMBOS and BRONZE GARANTI AU TITRE PARIS impressed in a roundel, and on a circular stepped red marble plinth (formerly fitted for electricity as a lamp), last quarter 19th Century

Details

A FRENCH BRONZE FIGURE OF PROMETHEUS, cast from a model by Jean-Jules Cambos, the standing naked man looking up to his left, holding thunderbolts in his hands, a slain eagle at his feet, on a circular naturalistic base signed CAMBOS and BRONZE GARANTI AU TITRE PARIS impressed in a roundel, and on a circular stepped red marble plinth (formerly fitted for electricity as a lamp), last quarter 19th Century

the bronze: 40¼in. (102.2cm.) high
46¼in. (117.5cm.) high overall

Lot Essay

In Greek mythology Prometheus, the son of the Titan, Iapetus, created the first man from clay, stole fire from the Gods to give to mankind and was punished by Jupiter by being chained to a rock where an eagle came every day to feed on his liver. He was eventually released by Hercules. The nineteenth century Romantic movement made Prometheus a symbol of freedom, a champion of mankind against tyranny, thus in Cambos's work, we see him standing over the slain eagle, thunderbolts in his hands.

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