Gérard van Opstal (1594–1668) and workshop, Southern Netherlands, Brussels, 17th century
The drunken Silenus, with two putto and three young Satyrs
Estimate
25,000 - 30,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
Gérard van Opstal (1594–1668) and workshop
Southern Netherlands, Brussels, 17th century
The drunken Silenus, with two putto and three Satyr Children
ivory relief; on a red silk background, on a plexiglass base
Silenus, seated on an overturned vase, raises a cup to his lips; a satyr child seated to his left eats grapes; two children and a satyr child to his right fight over a satyr mask; another satyr child holding a goat watches them
Relief: 14.2 by 28cm., 5⅝ by 11in.
background: 17 by 32cm., 6¾ by 12⅝in.
Please note that this lot contains elephant ivory. Pursuant to the UK Ivory Act 2018, clients based in the United Kingdom are not able to bid on / purchase this lot.
Please note that this lot contains elephant ivory the export of which outside the EU is now prohibited pursuant to European regulation 2021/2280 of 16 December 2021. Sotheby's will be able to provide the buyer with the intra-community certificate attached to this item.
Probably Émile Barre sale, Paris, 25 November 1863, lot 135 (« Magnifique Bas-Relief, par Van Opstal, représentant l’Ivresse de Silène. Beau travail flamand ») ;
Before 1875, with the dealer M. Evans, quai Voltaire, Paris ;
Paris sale, Palais d'Orsay, 15 June 1979, lot 4 ;
Sotheby’s Paris, 16 December 2004, lot 100 ;
Thence by descent, Belgian noble collection.
Un temps d'Exubérance, Les Arts Décoratifs sous Louis XIII et Anne d'Autriche, Grand Palais, Paris, 2002, cat. 331.
Ph. de Chennevières, ‘Notes d’un compilateur sur les sculpteurs et les sculptures en ivoire’, in La Picardie, no. 3, 1875, p. 61 ;
Ph. Malgouyres, « Gérard Van Opstal et la sculpture en ivoire », in Un temps d'Exubérance, Les Arts Décoratifs sous Louis XIII et Anne d'Autriche, exh. cat. Grand Palais, Paris, 2002, pp. 448-59 ;
Ph. Malgouyres, Ivoires de la Renaissance et des Temps modernes. La collection du musée du Louvre, Paris, 2010, pp. 101-103.
A gifted Flemish sculptor, van Opstal spent most of his career in Paris. Member of the Royal Academy since 1651, he was appointed official sculptor to Louis XIII, then Louis XIV, and participated in major royal projects during the third quarter of the 17th century. As a token of his esteem, in 1669 the young monarch purchased numerous works by the late sculptor from his descendants, including four of the six ivory reliefs with secular subjects by van Opstal now in the
musée du Louvre (inv. MR 361, MR362, MR 363, MR 365).
The composition of the present relief is inspired by a painting by Rubens, known from an engraving by Theodor van Kessel (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, inv. 1964.9.19.). Another relief of the same model, of comparable dimensions and formerly in the Mayer Carl de Rothschild collection, Frankfurt, is in the musée du Louvre (inv. CI 20814). The present relief, shows the same energy in the gestures, adding to the dynamism of the composition, and a comparable care taken in the transcription of the textures of the different materials.
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