A BRONZE EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF LOUIS XIV after Francis Girardon, the king shown dressed after the Antique, his right arm raised, seated on a prancing horse whose hind leg tramples underfoot a sword and acanthus-cast pelta centred by a medusa's head, on a rectangular chamferred plinth inscribed Girardon, the brass-inlaid ebony pedestal mounted with gilt-bronze, the stepped top above an egg-and-dart and entrelac moulded plain frieze, the hinged door and reverse inlaid in contre-partie with foliate arabesques and centred by a nymph emblematic of Time, seated on a satyr-mask plinth flanked by acanthus-scrolls terminated by ram's heads, enclosing a plain interior, the sides mounted with further satyr-masks, above a waved rectangular plinth, 19th Century

Details

A BRONZE EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF LOUIS XIV after Francis Girardon, the king shown dressed after the Antique, his right arm raised, seated on a prancing horse whose hind leg tramples underfoot a sword and acanthus-cast pelta centred by a medusa's head, on a rectangular chamferred plinth inscribed Girardon, the brass-inlaid ebony pedestal mounted with gilt-bronze, the stepped top above an egg-and-dart and entrelac moulded plain frieze, the hinged door and reverse inlaid in contre-partie with foliate arabesques and centred by a nymph emblematic of Time, seated on a satyr-mask plinth flanked by acanthus-scrolls terminated by ram's heads, enclosing a plain interior, the sides mounted with further satyr-masks, above a waved rectangular plinth, 19th Century
The bronze 43in. (109.5cm.) high; 39in. (99cm) wide
The pedestal 43½in. (110.5cm.) high; 29¼in. (74cm.) wide 86½in. (220cm.) high, overall

Provenance

Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt., 25 Park Lane, W.1., recorded on the Balcony in the pre-1927 inventory and in 1939

Literature

Lot Essay

This is a reduction of François Girardon's (1628-1715) equestrian portrait of Louis XIV, erected in the Place Louis-le-Grand, Paris, on 13 August 1699 (see M. Martin, Les Monuments Equestres de Louis XIV, Paris, 1986, pp. 92-117)

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