BRONZE FIGURE OF “THE BEATEN MARSYAS” - The Embden Collection France, 18th/19th century. Based on a Roman marble model from ca. 150 BC or an adaptation by François Girardon (1628–1715). Dark patinated bronze. Depiction of Marsyas hanging from a tree stump. H 60 cm. Small casting defects. Small holes in the bronze. Some scuffing. Provenance: The Arlette and Antony Embden Collection, France. According to mythological tradition, the god Apollo bound the satyr Marsyas to a spruce tree as punishment for his presumptuous challenge and had him skinned alive. The river Marsyas sprang from the victim's spilled blood. The model for the bronze is in the Louvre in Paris and is a monumental marble sculpture from Roman antiquity, dated around 150 BC (inv. no. MR 267). Between 1647 and 1650, François Girardon created a terracotta sculpture, now lost, probably based on the marble statue. This figure appears in a series of copper engravings by Nicolas Chevallier based on drawings by René Charpentier and Gilles-Marie Oppenord, which illustrate Girardon's collection (cf. François Souchal: French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries: The Reign of Louis XIV. Oxford 1981, vol. 2, p. 80, fig. 119). In his monograph on the artist, Alexandre Maral lists the series of several Marsyas bronzes “as possibly made by Girardon or under his direction” (Alexandre Maral: François Girardon. Le Sculpteur de Louis XIV. Paris 2015, pp. 457-459/p. 513, No. Sb. 47). The comparative bronzes cited by Maral differ from the bronze on offer in details. For example, the stump of the spruce tree is slightly higher at the bottom, and the elements that can be detached from the bronze, such as the pan flute and the animal skin covering Marsyas' groin, are completely missing (cf. example from the Alain Moatti Collection). * The full tax is charged on this item marked *, i.e. VAT is charged on the sum will be refunded to Purchasers providing a validly stamped export declaration.