Paetus and Arria (formerly called Macareus and Canace)
French School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1670 - 1699
Materials
Bronze
Measurements
700 mm (Height)
Order this imageCollection
Vyne Estate, Hampshire
NT 719592
Summary
Bronze sculpture group, Paetus and Arria (formerly called Macareus and Canace), French School, late 17th century. A bronze group inspired by the antique marble group of the Ludovisi Gaul on semi-circular base, killing himself having killed his wife before the enemy, in the Ludovisi Collection from November 1623 and since 1901 in the Museo Nazionale, Rome (Museo delle Terme). It was called Pyramus and Thisbe in 1638 from Ovid's story and since 1670, Paetus and Arria. It cannot show Macareus, who was, in Greek mythology, the son of Aeolus and either Enarete or Amphithea. He and his sister Canace fell in love with each other and had a child together. Both Canace and the baby were killed by Aeolus after he had discovered this and Macareus took his own life, having already fled. Caecina Paetus, on the other hand, was involved in the conspiracy of Camillus Scribonianus in AD 42 and taken to Rome where he was ordered to commit suicide. To encourage him his wife Arria killed herself, saying, 'Look Paetus, it doesn't hurt!'. In 1684, François Lespingola made a marble copy (at Versailles) of that antique sculpture (visible in Rome, and reproduced in the collections of engravings by Perrier and Audran) for Louis XIV. However, Théodon and Lepautre's work bears stylistic similarities to Roman 17th-century sculpture. The figure of Arria was no doubt inspired by Ercole Ferrata's Saint Agnes (1660, Sant'Agnese, Rome); Paetus resembles a figure in Algardi's The Meeting of Attila and Pope Leo (1646-63, Saint Peter's, Rome). The fullness of the figures and drapery resembles that of Roman statuary. The loose folds of Arria's feminine robe contrast with the wide, smooth pleats of the senator's tunic.
Makers and roles
French School, sculptor
References
Haskell and Penny 1981: Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique, The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500 - 1900, New Haven and London, 1981, 68, fig. 149