Laurent Hubert (1700-1790) French, Paris, circa 1753

Major General Sir Walter Arthur George Burns, North Mymms Park, Hatfield, Hertfordshire;
his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd, London, 24 September 1979, lot 18;
with Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd., London, until 1984;
private collection, United Kingdom;
on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1995-2004;
Sotheby's Paris, 20 April 2012, lot 101.

Paris, Académie de Saint-Luc, 1753, no. 47;
London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd., Sculpture and works of art, 29 October to 11 December 1981, no. 9;
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1995-2004.

S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'Ecole française au dix-huitième siècle, Paris, 1910, p. 437;
A. Oswald, 'Country houses and gardens, old & new: North Mymms Park - I. Hertfordshire, The seat of Mrs. Walter A.G. Burns', Country Life, LXXV, no. 1931, 20 January 1934;
Sculpture and works of art, exh. cat. Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd., London, 1981, no. 9;
Agnew's 1982-1992, London, 1992, p. 186, fig. 171; 
P. Sanchez, Dictionnaire des artistes exposant dans les salons des XVII^e et XVIII^e siècles à Paris et en province 1673-1800. II, Dum-me, Dijon, 2004, p. 853.

Overall the condition of the bronze is very good, with minor dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. There is some rubbing to the lacquer patina at the high points, such as at Arria's proper left leg, her chest, the Medusa head on the shield, and the swags of drapery at the back. There is particular wear to the patina at the fingers, and there may be some minor restoration to the fingers on Paetus's proper right hand. The bronze is cast in sections, and original stable joints are slightly visible in places. The bronze has three key components: the terrasse; Arria; and Paetus. In addition the arms of both figures, Paetus's proper right leg, and the shield are cast separately, and there are a few smaller separately cast elements, including the knife and Paetus's proper left thigh armour. The knife and Paetus's proper right leg are stable but slightly loose. There is a slightly visible original plug underneath Arria's proper right arm, and a few small circular plugs, including where the bolts connect the different components. There is a lacuna in between the two figures at Paetus's abdomen. There is a small round hole to Arria's drapery between Paetus's legs. There are a few minor nicks, including to the shield, where there is also a slight fissure at the edge. There are some glue residues at the joint of Paetus's proper right arm. There are some very minor scratches to the patina, including to both figures' proper right legs at the back. The bronze sits flat but not flush on an even surface.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Laurent Hubert exhibited the present bronze at the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1753 as no. 47, described as ‘Un groupe en bronze de deux pieds de proportion représentant Pétus & Arrie, Arrie présente un poignard à son Mari, après s’en être frappé le sein, lui disant: Tiens Pétus, il ne fait point du mal’.

As recounted by Pliny the Younger, the Roman general Caecina Paetus conspired with the Dalmatian legate Lucius Scribonianus in a failed uprising against the Emperor Claudius in 42CE, and was sentenced to the ‘noble death’ of taking his own life. When the moment arrived he hesitated, so his wife Arria wrenched the dagger from his faltering hand and stabbed herself, proclaiming “Non dolet, Paete” (“It doesn’t hurt, Paetus”), an act regarded as an exemplar of Roman courage, fidelity and self-sacrifice.

Although rarely sculpted, the subject of Arria and Paetus was well known to artists of the baroque period, particularly after the discovery of the Ludovisi Gaul in the early 17th century. This 2nd-century Roman marble after a lost Greek bronze now in the Museo Nazionale Palazzo Altemps, Rome, depicts a heroic male nude plunging a sword into his breast with one arm and supporting a dying woman with the other. Although now thought to represent a Galatian soldier committing suicide after defeat, at the time the statue was believed to portray Arria and Paetus and was esteemed as a great example of the canon of ideal proportions of the human body. (Haskell/Penny, op.cit., no. 68)

Hubert represents the moment in which Arria has just removed the dagger from her wound after stabbing her breast. He reduces the composition to only husband and wife and fully emphasises the drama of the scene, with Arria removing the dagger and revealing her deed in a slightly twisting motion towards Paetus, who leans backwards recoiling in shock with outstretched arms. The poses are akin to those in a highly theatrical painting of Arria and Paetus by Michel Corneille the Younger (sold Christie’s London 13 December 1991, lot 56) in which the gestures of the protagonists, though positioned farther apart, are very similar. In treating his group as if they were actors on a stage, Hubert was continuing the tradition of bronze sculptors of the early 18th century, who were strongly influenced by both French baroque opera and classical theatre and tended to favour ‘open, uniplanar and usually two-figure groups with a strong narrative sense’. (Wenley, op.cit., p. 376)

When Hubert exhibited the present bronze in 1753, the leading bronze sculptors from the end of Louis XIV's reign had all disappeared: Coysevox died in 1720, Corneille Van Clève in 1732, Guillaume Coustou in 1746, and Robert Le Lorrain in 1743. The rising talents of Houdon or Boizot, meanwhile, had not yet reached maturity. While Hubert’s subject and treatment of the figures place the work firmly in the late baroque tradition of the beginning of the century, certain details, particularly Paetus’ scrolled helmet with stylised cresting and the female mask on his armour, reveal that Hubert was versed in the aesthetic of the Rococo era. The bronze is therefore best seen as a transitional work before the emergence of neoclassicism in the French visual arts, and is therefore a key documented example from a less well-known period in the history of French sculpture.

RELATED LITERATURE
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, New Haven, 1981; R. Wenley, ‘Paintings in Metal,’ G. Bresc-Bautier, G. Scherf, J. D. Draper, and J. Bassett (eds.), Cast in Bronze. French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, exh. cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Paris, 2009