Lot 9: CIRCLE OF MICHAEL RYSBRACK (1694-1770) ENGLISH, MID-18 TH CENTURY

CIRCLE OF MICHAEL RYSBRACK (1694-1770) ENGLISH, MID-18 TH CENTURY CHARLES I marble bust: 71 by 61cm., 28 by 24in. socle: 16 by 22.5cm., 6¼ by 8 7/8in.

Sold Sotheby's London, 22 April 1986, lot 76;
with Christopher Gibbs until acquired for the Hall at Ashdown House

When this marble bust of Charles I was first published in 1986 it was attributed to the circle of François Dieussart, the Flemish sculptor who worked in England from 1636. It was proposed that the bust was stylistically comparable to the late works of Dieussart or his relative Christopher, in particular a marble bust of Charles II in Bruges. This observation was not unfounded, for there are compositional similarities between the busts. The two figures each wear a sash draped from the left shoulder, breastplates articulated with piccadils, a feature peculiar to seventeenth-century armour, and the emblem of the Order of the Garter, The Lesser George.

The present marble is, however, closer in conception to eighteenth-century historicizing portrait busts and seems to derive inspiration from Gianlorenzo Bernini's bust of Charles I, commissioned in 1635 and lost in the Whitehall Palace Fire of 1698. In 1996, Gudrun Raatschen published two re-discovered plaster casts recording the face of Bernini's lost bust of Charles I, in a private collection and at Berkeley Castle. There are several distinct similarities between these casts and the face of the present marble, particularly the domed forehead, the shape of the plump lips and beard and the analogous arrangement of the hair framing the face.

It is likely that the present bust dates to the eighteenth century, the period in which the desire to establish a British national identity gave birth to a new taste for historical portraits. The present marble finds a conceptual parallel in Michael Rysbrack's bust of Edward the Black Prince, dating to 1736 (sold in these rooms on 9th December 2005 for £164,800). Confirmation of a mid-18th century date for this marble is also supported by the treatment of the carving. The degree and variation in the polishing of the front and the rough, but regular finish on the back of the bust find close comparison with the above mentioned bust of the Black Prince and a bust, probably of John Hampden, sold in these rooms in 1979, attributed to Rysbrack.

In addition, the composition of the bust has some affinities with the marble bust of Charles I by Louis-François Roubiliac, which is dated 1759 and is now in the Wallace Collection. As in the present marble, Roubiliac's Charles I is presented wearing riveted armour with an elaborate sash draped across his chest. The Lesser George rests on top of the King's sash at an angle, an arrangement that is mirrored in the present bust. It is recorded that Roubiliac based his bust in part on a cast of the lost Bernini, a claim that is substantiated by the fact that Roubiliac's figure exhibits the same domed forehead, plump lips and arrangement of hair as is seen in both the Bernini casts and the present marble.

RELATED LITERATURE
C. Avery, 'The Collector Earl and his Modern Marbles. Thomas Howard and François Dieussart,' Apollo, June, 2006, pp.46-53;
Charles Avery, 'François Dieussart (c. 1600-61), Portrait Sculptor to the Courts of Northern Europe,' Studies in European Sculpture, London, 1981, pp. 205-235;
Katharine Eustace, 'The politics of the past. Stowe and the development of the historical portrait bust,' Apollo, July, 1998, pp. 31-40;
John Peacock, 'The Visual Image of Charles I,' in Thomas N. Corns (ed.), The Royal Images: Representations of Charles I, Cambridge, 1999, pp. 209-220;
Gudrun Raatschen, 'Plaster Casts of Bernini's Bust of Charles I,' Burlington Magazine, December, 1996, pp. 813-816;
Jane Roberts, with a note on portrait busts by Jonathan Marsden, The King's Head. Charles I: King and Martyr, London, 1999, pp. 3-4, 36-41;
M. Vickers, 'Rupert of the Rhine: A new portrait by Dieussart and Bernini's Charles I,' Apollo, March, 1978, pp. 161-169