Lot n° 170
Estimation :
1000 - 1500
EUR
Oak panel carved in bas-relief representing the Annunciation - Lot 170
Oak panel carved in bas-relief representing the Annunciation, inscriptions in ink on the back slodz sculpteur du roy 1633.
Attributed to Sébastien Slodtz (1655 - 1726), early 18th century
H. 47 cm - L. : 74,5 cm
(the thumb of the Virgin is missing)
Label of collection
The inscription on the back of this panel indicates that the sculptor could be a certain Slodtz, sculptor to the king, but the date indicated is not at all in keeping with either the presence of this dynasty in France in 1633 or with the style of the decoration surrounding the scene, which is more of the late 17th century.
But let's not rule out the possibility of the name indicated. The Slodtz family is a dynasty of sculptors from Antwerp. The first of them, Sebastian Slodtz, born around 1655, arrived in Paris in 1685. He was a student of Girardon, or at least entered his workshop. He participated in the works of Versailles from 1687. Thanks to a marriage of good fortune, he married Madeleine Cucci, daughter of a cabinetmaker to Louis XIV, and also became the brother-in-law of the sculptor René Chauveau and the nephew of Antoine Desgodets, controller of the King's Buildings and in charge of the installation of artists in the Louvre. He therefore obtained a place to live in the palace and joined the Académie de Saint-Luc.
Our bas-relief bears the obvious inspiration of Girardon's work, notably in the figure of the Virgin with the simple veil, which can be compared to a bronze profile of the Virgin executed in 1691 for the main altar of the church of Saint Jean de Troyes, which may have been a source of inspiration for the execution of this Annunciation.
Works consulted: François Souchal, French sculptors of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, the reign of Louis XIV, Oxford, 1981, p 65
François Souchal, Les Slodtz sculpteurs et décorateurs du Roi (1685-1764), Journal des savants, 1970, pp 275-284
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