A late 19th Century bronze bust of Ariadne
A late 19th Century bronze bust of Ariadne
A French patinated bronze bust of Ariadne by the F. Barbedienne foundry.
The fine réduction méchanique is after a model, c.1805-1810, by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). This sole bust is often paired with a famous Antique bust of Antinous now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Signed F. BARBEDIENNE. FONDEUR, seal inscribed with REDUCTION MECHANIQUE A. COLLAS BREVETE
Size: 22 inches (55.8cm) high; 12 inches (30cm) wide; 12 inches (30cm) deep; base width 6.75 inches (17.5cm)
Stock Number: VT20297
🔶On Consignment
Ferdinand Barbedienne (French, 1810 – 1892) son of a farmer from Calvados, began his working life as a wallpaper salesman but soon turned his talents to cast metalwork, building up a successful foundry and eventually specialising in the production of fine bronze replicas of Antique works. Crucially, in 1838 Barbedienne formed a partnership with Achille Collas (French, 1795 - 1859), an engineer, inventor, writer and engraver who had cleverly developed a method of reproducing sculptures and busts on a smaller scale to the original, a method the Société Collas et Barbedienne described as réduction méchanique. Their work was recognised at the Great Exhibition of 1851 when the company received a special medal. Collas was awarded the Grand Médaille d'Honneur of the Exposition Universelle, Paris in 1855.
