MICHEL ANGUIER

PLUTO AND CERBERUS

White marble, resting on an ebonised wooden base.

Height overall: 34 ½ in. (86.6 cm.)

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby Parke Bernet, Monte Carlo, 4 Dec. 1983, lot 210.

The Collection of Hubert de Saint-Senoch. Pavillion de Bidaine.

Paris sale 3 March 1788, lot 87, where described as “Une figure d'Hercule enchainant Cerbere...”.

The Collection of M. de Villemandi.

Hôtel d'Aligre (sale), Rue St. Honoré, 5 Nov. 1778, lot 109, where described as “Pluton, de 25 pouces de proportion sur son socle de 6 pouces d'elevation.”

The Collection of Mme de Julienne.

LITERATURE:

Bernard Black and Hugues-W. Nadeau, Michel Anguier's Pluto: The Marble of 1669, London and Atlantic Highlands, 1990.

F. Souchal, French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries - The reign of Louis XIV, IV, London, 1993, p. 149, no. 54.

Comparative Literature:

Ian Wardropper, 'Michel Anguier's Series of Bronze Gods and Goddesses: a Re-examination', in Marsyas, no. 18, 1976.

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NOTES:

This remarkably powerful and exquisitely carved statuette of Pluto is the only known version of this subject by Michel Anguier executed in marble.  Moreover, there are currently no other marble works by Michel Anguier available anywhere in the world; all other known marble works are within the collections of public institutions.

Michel Anguier was one of the greatest French sculptors of the baroque period. He was born in Eu, Normandy in 1612, and in 1641 he travelled to Rome, where he remained for ten years perfecting his technique, during which time he worked with and assisted both Gianlorenzo Bernini and Alessandro Algardi. The influence of these baroque sculptors, along with a strong classical theme, can be seen in the present work.