École Française du XIXe siècle

Lot 75
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Estimation :
4000 - 6000 EUR
École Française du XIXe siècle
Study for the Minerva of Dampierre Castle Watercolour on cardboard 27,9 x 17,8 cm Greek inscription top right: To my friend... 1880 The sculptor Pierre-Charles Simart was commissioned in 1846 by the Duke of Luynes, passionate about ancient art, to restore the Athena Parthenos de Phidias, for his castle of Dampierre in the Yvelines). For the gallery on the first floor, the Duke of Luynes executed a work that included a quarter of the chryselephantine statue of Minerva, or Athena, which was enthroned in front of the murals representing The Golden Age and The Iron Age composed by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres. This study is primordial because of its assumed use of vivid colours. The author is part of a controversy that took place from 1830 to 1860 in France, opposing those who highlighted the presence of traces of polychromy on ancient monuments, and those who refused to imagine Hellenic temples in full colour, especially the Parthenon, a monument symbolising the apogee of Athenian classicism.
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