Lot 482: TWO ITALIAN ALABASTER AND 'GIALLO ANTICO' FIGURES OF CLEOPATRA AND JUDITH, FROM THE CIRCLE OF NICOLAS CORDIER (1567-1612), 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES

TWO ITALIAN ALABASTER AND 'GIALLO ANTICO' FIGURES OF CLEOPATRA AND JUDITH, FROM THE CIRCLE OF NICOLAS CORDIER (1567-1612), 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES height of Cleopatra 23 in., height of Judith 23 3/4 in.; 58.4 cm, 60.3 cm

These opulent figures are reminiscent of the work of Nicolas Cordier, a French sculptor working in Rome at the beginning of the 17th century. Working both on original compositions and on the repair of antique fragments, Cordier was known for his use of luxurious materials including colored marbles and alabaster. The present models were realised by an artist who was well acquainted with Cordier's work. The style, particularly of Judith, is perhaps closest to Cordier's Egyptian alabaster and bronze figure of St Agnes (Pressouyre, op. cit., fig. 179), with its classical, restrained drapery as well as the classicizing features of the head. Also comparable is a lifesize alabaster torso and bronze figure of Tiberius ascribed to the circle of Cordier (Areizaga, op. cit., cat. no. 168), now in the Prado, Madrid, which displays the confident contrapposto poses also evident in the present pair.

Cordier added heads and hands to the marble group of the Three Graces, now in the Louvre, for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, and at some time between 1607 and 1612 he enhanced, for the same patron, polychrome marble statues of a Moor (Château du Versailles) and of a Gypsy Girl (Borghese Gallery, Rome), using antique torsos as a base. The present figures epitomize the taste for antiquities restored with sumptuous materials, evident in the collections of noble families in Baroque Rome.

RELATED LITERATURE

S. Pressouyre, Nicolas Cordier : recherches sur la sculpture à Rome autour de 1600, Rome, 1984
R. Coppel Areizaga, Catalogo de la Escultura de Epoca Moderna, Siglos XVI-XVIII, Madrid, 1998