Lot 131: Louis-Claude Vassé (Paris 1716-1772)

A lion in profile to the left, his left paw resting on a sphere
red chalk, watermark R[HEART]VP over grapes
7 1/2 x 11 3/4 in. (192 x 302 mm.)

B. Jolles (L. 381a).
Blome, his mark (not in Lugt).

Drawn after the statue of a lion made in imitation of the antique for Cardinal Ferdinando de'Medici by the sculptor and restorer of antiquities Flaminio Vacca (1538-1605), commissioned as a pendant to an antique lion. The pair flanked the main staircase of the Villa Medici in Rome. In 1787 the lions were moved to the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. A study of the same lion by Bouchardon is in the Louvre (J. Guiffrey and E. Marcel, Inventaire général des dessins de l'école française, Adam à Bouchardon, Paris, 1922, I, no. 465), and another by Batoni is in the Library at Eton College (H. Macandrew, 'A group of Batoni drawings at Eton College...', Master Drawings, XVI, 1978, 1, pl. 1).