French, 18th century

With Daniel Katz Ltd., Burlington House Fair, London, 1980

The subject of Daedalus attaching his son's wings was uncommon in 18th century sculpture. A cast of the present model was illustrated in the French Bronze exhibition in 1968, and another is in the Minneapolis Institute of Art (inv. no. 71.6). A gilt version sold at Sotheby's New York on 2 February 2018, lot 327, was thought to have come from the collection of the Marquis de Marigny et de Menars. The bronze appeared to match a description in the marquis' posthumous inventory, number 981: Item Icare attachant des ailes a Son fils groupe en bronze son pié de Cuivre doré prisé prisé quarante [sic] Cent Vingt Liv. Cy 120. This bronze was sold in the sale of his estate: Vente Menars no. 239 pour 200 livres (Alden, cit., p. 311, no. 917) (Alden, op. cit., p. 311, no. 917).

A cast in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, acquired in 1785 from the Lanskoi collection, has been attributed to the French 18th-century sculptor Louis-Claude Vassé (1717-1772) (inv. no. 227). Interestingly, Vassé exhibited a terracotta sketch of: Dédale qui attache des ailes à son fils Icare, at the Paris Salon of 1750, adding credence to the potential attribution of the present model to Vassé.

Daedalus, the architect, inventor, and craftsman of Greek legend, is shown attaching wings to the back of his son, Icarus. According to Ovid's recounting of the ancient myth, Daedalus fabricated wings of feathers and wax in order to escape the island of Crete, where he and his son were held captive by King Minos. Disregarding his father’s advice, Icarus flew too close to the sun. The wax melted and he fell into the sea and drowned. The myth of Daedalus and Icarus has remained a popular parable about heeding one’s elders, the dangers of excessive ambition and pride, and the benefits and risks of technological progress.

RELATED LITERATURE

S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'école Française au dix-huitième siècle, Paris, 1911, p. 375; The French Bronze 1500-1800, exhibition catalogue, New York, M. Knoedler & Co., 1968, no. 34; Alden R. Gordon, The houses and collections of the Marquis de Marigny, Provenance Index of the Getty Research Institute, 2003, p. 128, no. 917; Geneviève Bresc-Bautier, Guilhem Scherf and James D. Draper (eds.), Cast in Bronze. French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, exh. cat. musée du Louvre, Paris, and J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2009