Prudence, Aristocracy, Eloquence and the Glory of Princes
Sophisticated and erudite in taste, these four female allegories were exhibited in Paris at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, on the occasion of the famous exhibition Louis XIV, faste et décors, in 1960.
Dressed in the antique style of a fine, transparent, abundantly pleated tunic covered by a mantle, four women, standing with a classical physical canon, advance one foot in a noble attitude, skilfully emphasized by a slight contrapposto. Their refined hairstyles are adorned with diadems, crowns or pearls, reflecting the attributes that distinguish and identify them.
The castings are meticulous, the rendering of materials skilfully contrasted by the use of a matt chisel for the tunics, and the details are subtle. These statuettes were lost-wax cast in one piece, integral with their square base. The fonts are empty, the patina black and dense.
Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia, published in Italy in 1593, was widely distributed and translated into French in 1644, enabling us to propose an identification: La Gloire des Princes, carrying a pyramid, La Prudence, a snake coiled around her arm, L’Aristocratie, leaning on a beam surmounted by a purse of coins, and L’Éloquence, fixing her two hands, seeming to count on her fingers as if arguing. The four young women thus form a tetrad that appears to be complete, celebrating the virtues of an important man of power, undoubtedly their patron.
