After Jean Baptiste Pigalle (1714 - 1785)
"Mercury"
Bronze, 14” x 13” x 22½”
​Late 19th / Early 20th Century  Stamped: “D’Aubre”
This bronze sculpture of Mercury is one of Pigalle’s most recognised and celebrated sculptures, compared by Voltaire to the finest sculptures of Greek antiquity. He conceived the original piece in plaster in 1742, having returned to Paris after five years studying in Rome. This piece was presented at the Salon of 1742, paired with a figure of Venus. Both statues were subsequently made in marble for the King. By this time Pigalle worked almost exclusively on royal commissions for Louis XV and others in the royal court. He also produced a number of large scale public monuments. The success of Pigalle’s Mercury lead to it being featured in many contemporary paintings, with the painter Chardin, a friend of Pigalle’s, using it to symbolize sculpture in his paintings, The Drawing Lesson and The Attributes of the Arts. Such was the popularity of this piece that the Sèvres porcelain company also produced a smaller porcelain version. Pigalle’s marble scupture of Mercury is now housed in the Louvre, Paris.