Ferdinand BARBEDIENNE (1810-1892) Founder - Lot 75

Ferdinand BARBEDIENNE (1810-1892) Founder "Aphrodite dite Venus Genitrix Bronze subject with brown patina Marked "F. Barbedienne Fondeur" on the terrace H 51.5 x W 17 x D 15 cm The Venus Genitrix is a type of ancient sculpture showing the Roman goddess Venus in her guise as Genitrix ("founder of the family"). This type of sculpture has two forms. In addition to the one in which Venus lifts her cloak with her right hand, while the tunic flows from her right shoulder and the left shoulder and breast are bare, there is another type in which Venus carries her child Eros on her shoulder. Around 420-410 BC, the Athenian sculptor Callimachus created a bronze sculpture that has now disappeared. She was wearing a light tunic revealing her left breast and holding an apple in her left hand. He may well have been the creator of this type. But the name Alcamenes has also been suggested. In any case, the creator in question synthesizes the austere teachings of Polyclitus and the Attic mannerism of the second half of the 5th century BC. From Polyclitus, he retained the weightlessness of the leg bent backwards, and the chiasmus, in which the inclination of the shoulders is opposed to that of the hips. Mannerism is particularly evident in the way the tunic flows in a multitude of fine folds over this anatomy, which is more or less plump depending on the version.