9/6/23 - Art market - Paris and Versailles - This is certainly a masterpiece that deserves to be declared a National Treasure and added to French public collections. Designed by François Anguier, the funerary monument of Jacques de Souvré, or more precisely its terracotta model, will be offered for sale by Osenat on 18 June in Versailles, with the expertise of Alexandre Lacroix and Élodie Jeannest de Gyvès (ill. 1).
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- 1. François Anguier (1604-1669)
Funerary Monument to Jacques de Souvré (1600-1670), before 1667
Terracotta - H. 42 x 77 x 20 cm
Osenat Sale, Versailles, 18 June 2023
Photo: Osenat - See the image in its page
Knight of Malta, ambassador of the Order, commander of the galleys of France, abbot of Mont Saint-Michel, Jacques de Souvré entrusted François Anguier with the creation of his tomb in the church of the Commandery of Saint Jean-de-Latran in Paris, of which he was prior, before being appointed Grand Prior of France in 1667. He was finally buried in the church of Sainte-Marie du Temple. His funerary monument, the cenotaph, was dismembered during the French Revolution. Today, the Louvre holds the marble group (ill. 2), while the other elements are scattered between the church of Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais in Paris, the park at Versailles and the historical monuments research laboratory at Champs sur Marne. Françoise de La Moureyre analyses its composition and iconography in an article published in 2013 in La Tribune de l’Art.
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- 2. François Anguier (1604-1669)
Funerary Monument to Jacques de Souvré (1600-1670), before 1667
Marble - 106 x 197 x 55.5 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: Louvre - See the image in its page
The terracotta now on sale is the model that the sculptor presented to the client before the final work was executed. Its status as a preparatory sketch and the fact that it is so fragile make its conservation a miracle. Few models from the 17th century have thus survived. One of them can be seen in the Louvre, the recumbent statue of Henri II de Bourbon Condé by Gilles Guerin, commissioned between December 1646 and 1651.
It is interesting to compare Osenat’s terracotta with the marble in the Louvre: the model shows Jacques de Souvré still young, his features idealised, expressing both physical and moral suffering. In the final work, Souvré is a middle-aged man, his face marked by time, with a goatee and moustache that place him in his time. The pain of leaving this world is further marked by his furrowed brow. His armour as a knight of the Order of Malta is placed at his feet. The drapery around his legs announces his shroud. A putto or winged genie [1] lays his hand on his shoulder, looking distressed.
This work testifies to Anguier’s inventiveness. He drew inspiration both from ancient models and from Italian sculptors who, in the 16th century, renewed the iconography of the recumbent statue by representing the deceased in atto, still alive, reclining and leaning, according to a formula inspired by Etruscan tombs. This is the case, for example, of the funerary monuments of Cardinals Ascanio Sforza and Girolamo Basso della Rovere, created by Sansovino in Santa Maria del Popolo, or the tomb of Julius II by Michelangelo.
In seventeenth-century France, the figure of the praying man predominated. But Anguier not only chose to show a man half-reclining, he also showed him half-naked, dressed in an antique drapery rather than a contemporary garment. He was undoubtedly influenced by the Tiber and Nile figures on the Capitoline and by the antique model of the heroic nude. His mastery of terracotta is admirable, translating the nervousness of the body, the fluidity of the drapery and the nuance of expression. Surprisingly, there is no Christian reference in this monument, which betrays Souvré’s hedonism rather than his faith. This sculpture is not an exception in the work of Anguier, who designed several funerary monuments; it is more particularly comparable to the Rohan-Chabot monument.
The attribution of the marble in the Louvre changed several times; it was given to Jacques Sarrazin, then to Michel Anguier, younger brother of François. Finally, in an article published in 2002 in the Gazette des Beaux Arts, Françoise de La Moureyre attributed it to François Anguier [2]. Claire Mazel revisits this sculpture in her thesis on Funerary monuments in Paris during the Grand Siècle, published in 2009. We hope that its acquisition by a museum will lead to further studies of this artist.