FRENCH, AFTER PIERRE LEPAUTRE AND GUILLAUME COUSTOU, LATE 18TH OR EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The bitter sweet myth of Atalanta and Hippomenes tells how the athletic goddess would challenge her suitors to a race in which the loser was punished by death. Hippomenes also took up the challenge, which he won by dropping three golden apples, (given to him by Veneus) which Atalanta stopped to pick up.

The original statues on which the present bronzes are based were made for the gardens at Marly and are now housed in the Louvre, Paris. The figure of Atalanta is after Pierre Lepautre's marble of 1704 and Hippomenes after Guillaume Coustou's marble of 1712.