Septimius Severus or Antoninus Pius, called 'Hannibal'
by or after François Girardon (Troyes 1628 - Paris 1715)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1675 - c. 1725
Materials
Bronze
Measurements
660 mm (H)380 mm (W)280 mm (D)
Place of origin
France
Order this imageCollection
Beningbrough Hall, North Yorkshire
NT 1191239
Summary
Bronze, Septimius Severus or Antoninus Pius, called 'Hannibal', by or after François Girardon (Troyes 1658 - Paris 1715) or Sébastien Slodtz (Antwerp 1655 - Paris 1726), c. 1675-1725. A bronze bust of a classical man wearing a cuirass with mascaron of the gorgon Medusa and a fringed cloak draped over the proper right shoulder. It is associated with a bust of Hannibal depicted in Nicolas Chavalier's engravings of the Galerie de Girardon (Galerie des oeuvres de Girardon, Recueil d'estampes gravées par N. Chevallier, d'après R. Charpantier, relatives à l'oeuvre sculpté de Girardon; BnF, inv. no. FOL-AA-56, f. 13, no. 23 'Anibal teste de Bronze d'apres l'Antique posée sur un Scableon') which is known in bronze versions at the Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris, and at the Museum of Antiquities, University of Saskatchewan, the latter formerly in the collection of Napoleon Bonaparte. The busts relate to a model by François Girardon (Souchal 1987, vol. III, p. 274, no. 5) which was translated into a full-length statue of Hannibal produced by Girardon's pupil, Sébastien Slodtz, between 1687 and 1704, mounted in the Tuileries in 1722 (Louvre, MR 2093). That the model is historically identified as Hannibal is most likely explained by the presence of three drawings by Charles Le Brun (1619-90) in the Louvre annotated Anibal/Hannibal (the drawings: Louvre, Deux têtes dites d'Hannibal, inv.nos. 28241, 28242, 28243). However, the it is clear that inspiration for both Girardon's and Le Brun's designs are antique and contemporary busts not of Hannibal, but of Septimius Severus or Antoninus Pius; see, for example, inv.no. MR 2500, Parc Bosquet Empereurs/Salle Marronniers, Versailles.
Makers and roles
by or after François Girardon (Troyes 1628 - Paris 1715) , sculptor by or after Sébastien Slodtz (Paris 1655 - Paris 1726), sculptor
References
Souchal 1967: François Souchal, Les Slodtz, sculpteurs et décorateurs du Roi (1685-1764), Paris 1967, pp. 584-6. Souchal 1977-1987: François Souchal, French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries: The Reign of Louis XIV, Oxford 1977–1987, 1987, vol. III, p. 274, no. 5.