Marble relief of a classical male, French, circa 1700

Circle of Antoine Coysevox (Lyons, 1640-1720, Paris)
Relief portrait of a classical male
French, circa 1700
Marble, in an original grey marble frame
35 cm. / 13 ¾ ins high (the relief) / 50 cm. high x 41 cm. wide incl. frame

PROVENANCE:
Christie's, King Street, 500 Years: Decorative Arts Europe, London, 10 December 2009, lot 745

This fine marble relief exemplifies the sophisticated style of sculpture prevalent in France during the reign of Louis XIV, combining the dramatic energy of Bernini’s Roman Baroque with the cool classicism of the emerging Neoclassical style. It finds close parallels both in style and execution with the oeuvre of Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720), whose workshop executed numerous portrait reliefs for royal and aristocratic patrons.

The rendering of the hair and idealised style may be compared with several portraits of Louis de France, Le Grand Dauphin (eldest son of Louis XIV), which are associated with Antoine Coysevox and his workshop. See, for example, a relief of Le Grand Dauphin illustrated in Maral and Carpentier-Vanhaverbeke, op. cit., p. 319, which is signed by Coysevox and dated 1683. Another relief by Coysevox, a portrait of the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart dated to 1712 and now in Versailles (Musée national des chateaux de Versailles, inv. MV5795) also shares the precise carving of the curls of hair with a claw chisel and the deep drilling to create volume.

These similarities to other reliefs by Coysevox suggest that the present work was executed by a French sculptor who trained or worked in the circle of Coysevox during the reign of Louis XIV in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century.

RELATED LITERATURE:
Alexandre Maral and Valérie Carpentier-Vanhaverbeke, 'Antoine Coysevox 1640-1720, Le Sculpteur du Grand Siècle'. Paris, 2020, pp. 261-65, no. 257, pp. 318-19, nos. 115 and 40; François Souchal, 'French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries, The Reign of Louis XIV', vol. A-F. Oxford, 1977, pp. 156-57 (no. 12) 189-90 (no. 32), 217-18 (no. 96)