Offered by Galerie Gilles Linossier
A very fine pair of 17th-century white marble busts of rare elegance, by the renowned sculptor Tommaso Rues.
They depict two women draped in the classical style, their breasts bare, wearing crowns and jewels that fall across their foreheads.
One, her head turned slightly to the left, sports an artfully styled hairstyle gathered into a sophisticated braided chignon, her hair falling elegantly over her left shoulder.
She gracefully wears a large crown that appears to be set with alternating oval and pyramidal gemstones. A large, finely ornamented jewel stands out on either side of her forehead. With her mouth slightly open and an almost sad expression, she seems melancholic.
The other woman, with a more serious demeanor, looks to the right, her head slightly raised.
Her gaze seems more surprised, and her closed mouth displays no smile. She, too, wears a beautiful braided chignon that falls in a wavy strand over her bare right shoulder.
She wears a large, intricately carved crown studded with precious stones, with a wide medallion cascading down her forehead and ending in a pearl.
These female figures, with their noble and idealized beauty, personify the Venetian Baroque spirit, combining majesty, sensitivity, and sensuality in this composition.
Their hair, rendered with remarkable ornamental detail and cascading into artfully arranged curls and braids, testifies to a refined sense of detail.
The powerfully animated drapery envelops the busts in a play of ample yet delicate folds, lending the whole an impression of realistic movement.
The exquisitely soft treatment of the flesh, contrasting with the vigorously pleated drapery that reveals a breast—a symbol of femininity and beauty—underscores the sculptor's great skill.
The faces, animated by an expression that is both proud and melancholic, confirm this search for emotion so frequently expressed in late 17th-century Venetian sculpture. The busts, in white marble, rest brilliantly on bases of red Verona marble, whose warm hue only enhances the grandeur of the pure white. These two faces of eternity, frozen in marble with Italian sensibility, are attributed by the expert to Tommaso Rues (1639–1703), a sculptor originally from Tyrol who settled in Venice, and a pupil and collaborator of Giusto Le Court.
Rues contributed to the ornamentation of several Venetian churches, including the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, where his mastery of modeling and movement was fully realized.
His work is evident here, both in the faces, imbued with eloquent dignity, and in the details of the drapery and ornamentation; an expressive naturalism and classical idealization characteristic of the Venetian school, where the pursuit of expressiveness is combined with a refined taste for the harmony of forms.
The skillfully crafted hair, the gazes turned towards the heavens, and the delicate treatment of the marble lend these busts a poetic and majestic presence.
A pair of exceptional sculptures, of high quality and craftsmanship, with a refinement worthy of the greatest Venetian workshops of the late 17th century.
A beautiful work, both decorative and steeped in history, created by a master sculptor whose works are now held in major collections.
A Diana and a Minerva are found in the Rothschild collection, whose subtlety of hair, drapery, and expressions is remarkably similar to our pair.
Our pair is also referenced in the artist's catalogue entry by Dr. Maichol Clemente, a leading expert on 17th-century Venetian sculpture.
They are catalogued from a Christie's sale in London and, according to the expert, along with the two previous works in the Rothschild collection, "the author attributes to Rues the busts of Minerva and Diana in the Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor, as well as four busts that have appeared on the art market in London and Paris."
Our pair is formally the pair offered by Christie's, with all its old signs of wear. Only the marble base may have been changed.
A work by the artist, a bust of Pluto, was sold in 2018 in London by Sotheby's for €112,000.
Dimensions:
Woman with head turned to the right with base: H 65 cm x W 39 cm x D 18 cm; Woman with head turned to the left with base: H 63 cm x W 39 cm x D 15 cm
