Beschreibung:

An extremely rare Louis XIV carved white and veined marble fountain bowl on stand, late 17th century,on stepped grey marble base,115cm.; 45½ins high by 95cm.; 37ins overall diameter, This rare Louis XIV marble fountain is similar in style to many of the sculpture and fountains in marble, bronze and lead made for Versailles in the second half of the 17th Century. The fountain figures of putti for the Water Parterre recall the work of Giradon and Coustou and most especially for the Bassin de la Renommee by Gaspard and Barthelemy Marsy, although this piece is carved on a considerably more modest scale and would have certainly been intended for indoor use, possibly in a Orangery. ,The construction is typical of an early piece in which the main sculptural elements of the putti, goat and basket of grapes are all carved in the finest statuary marble which has been let into the base of the harder veined white marble, which is also mirrored on the bowl above. Although much copied in the 19th century, it is extremely rare for period 17th century pieces to have survived, since most have suffered from the depredations of the weather., Literature: ,French sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries, Reign of Louis XIV by Francois Souchal, Bruno Cassirer 1977, Volume II, page 62-63.,Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, E Benezit, vol 7 page 205,Versailles Gardens, Sculpture and Mythology, Jacques Girard published by Philip Wilson, 1985