Saturday, October 2, 2010

Louis XIV

Typically, I'm not a fan of sculpture. I'll rush past sculpture in any museum to get to the paintings (or more likely, the furniture and decorative arts collection!). Nothing against the artform, but for me it always fades into the background.
However, this bronze bust of Louis XIV from 1700 done copying Bernini always stops me dead in my tracks at the National Gallery of Art. The Duveen brothers art dealers from London swear this bust was given by Louis XIV to his brother Phillipe for his Chateau Saint-Cloud where it sat until the chateau was destroyed in 1870, although there is no documentation. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stefan, Bernini is my favorite sculptor. There is so much life and movement in his work.

Lucky you to have all these great works right in your 'backyard' so to speak.
xs

Abby said...

Lovely. And one of my favorite buildings in the city.

Yuri-Alex Niso said...

That's a beautiful sculpture--even against the wall I can see how it'd be hard to fade into the background

Reggie Darling said...

J'adore Bernini! I am planning on posting about one in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum at some point, that sets one's heartbeat apace, given its deliciously and lovingly depicted subject matter. Whew!

Kellie Collis said...

I couldn't agree more! Kellie xx

Yuri-Alex Niso said...

Hey, I just came across these and thought of you-- these lamp designs were inspired by the petit trianon (though how EXACTLY I can't really tell): http://www.artecnicainc.com/Events_and_Exhibitions/2010/Woonbeurs_in_Amsterdam