French, late 17th/ early 18th century

Private collection, United Kingdom

This impressive bust of the god Apollo is ultimately derived from the celebrated Apollo Belvedere in the Musei Vaticani, Rome. The bust follows the ancient hair arrangement and the characteristic turn of the neck to the sinister, with lips parted and eyes unincised and wide open as if in a state of divine ethereality. The presence of the sun mask on the breastplate of the armour is an allusion to Apollo's designation as the sun god, but is also arguably an implicit reference to Louis XIV of France, the Sun King. Louis XIV famously modelled himself on Apollo, appearing at masques in fabulous golden Apollonian costumes, the sunburst mask prominently displayed at the centre of the chest. Similar masks are seen on official portraiture, including Jean Warin's iconic bust of Louis XIV at Versailles (1665; inv. no. MV224). Stylistically the present bust is close to mythological statuary made for the court of Louis XIV. Compare, for example, with Jean-Baptise Tuby's La Joie morceau de réception to the Académie Royale in 1663, and now in the Louvre (inv. no. MV7753). Compare also with Guillaume I Coustou's Daphné (poursuivie par Apollon) made for the parc de Marly between 1713-1715 and now in the Louvre (inv. no. MR 1807).

RELATED LITERATURE
F. Souchal, French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th Senturies. The Reign of Louis XIV, Oxford, 1987, vol. III M-Z, p. 330; J-R. Gaborit, La sculpture française. Renaissance et Temps Modernes, vol. II, cat. Louvre, Paris, 1998, p. 161