Frémyn Roussel (fl. c. 1560-1570), France, third quarter of the 16th century Charon receiving payment for passage to the Underworld, probably Psyche's journey to the Underworld Marble bas-relief H.32.5 cm (12 ¾ in.) l.43 cm (17 in.) Comparative bibliography : S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'Ecole française du moyen âge au règne de Louis XIV, 1898, pp. 497- 498. D. Cordellier et al, Primaticcio, Master of Fontainebleau, exhibition catalogue, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2004. A carved white marble relief depicting Charon receiving Payment for Passage into the Underworld, probably Psyche's Journey to the Underworld, Frémyn Roussel (fl. c. 1560-1570), France, third quarter of the 16th century *Information for buyers: Lot from outside the EEC: to the commissions and taxes indicated in the general terms and conditions of purchase, import VAT must be added (5.5% of the hammer price). *Information to the buyers : Lot from outside the EEC : an import tax (5,5 % of the hammer price) will be due, in addition to the commissions and taxes indicated in the general conditions of purchase. Frémyn Roussel belonged to the generation of French sculptors who, under the impetus of Germain Pilon (c. 1525-1590) and Ponce Jacquiot (c. 1515-1571), defined the sculptural style associated with the school of Fontainebleau, the royal residence to the south-east of Paris, which was considerably enlarged and richly decorated during the 16th century. The project was mainly supervised by the Bolognese painter and architect Francesco Primaticcio (1503-1570), who had been called to Paris by François I de Valois (1494-1547) around 1533 and remained in the service of his successors - Henri II (1519-1559) and his widow, Catherine de Médicis (1519-1589), regent to their sons François II and Charles IX - until his death. in 1570. Roussel, whose origins remain unknown, is first mentioned in connection with Primaticcio's work at the French court in a payment of 1561 for unspecified models for the funerary monument of Henri II and Catherine de Médicis at Saint-Denis (loc. cit.), p. 426), completed between 1560 and 1573. In 1564 and 1565, Roussel was paid for a figure of a Funerary Genius (Musée du Louvre, MR 1585; N 15075), commissioned as part of the work on the tomb of the heart of François II, based on drawings by Primaticcio. Originally intended for Orléans cathedral, the shrine was begun in 1563 but never completed, and only part of it was finally erected in the Célestins convent in Paris, while the Genius was placed in Saint-Denis. Roussel's name appears again in court records in 1565 and 1566, when the artist was paid for a marble bas-relief representing Charity to adorn the base of the tomb of Henri II and Catherine de Médicis in Saint-Denis (see Fig. 1). Period sources also attest to Roussel's presence at the Château de Fontainebleau, for which he sculpted four figures of children in the Cour du Cheval Blanc and two monumental personifications of Religion and Justice for the Aile de la Belle Cheminée (all of which have not been found). Charity is the main point of reference for attributing our relief. The "group" with the female figure and the two putti on either side of her in the right-hand corner of the panel of the funerary monument is repeated almost identically in Charon receiving payment for passage to the Underworld, and echoes of the three cripples of Charity can be seen in the positions of Charon and his companion. The iconography of the female figure crouching on her side - with an elongated body, small breasts and wide hips - is derived from Primaticcio's drawings and the Florentine Mannerist tradition, which represent key aspects of the DNA of the Fontainebleau school. Parallels can also be found in Germain Pilon's three reliefs for the same funerary monument (Faith, Hope and Mercy), as well as in engravings produced in France during the sixteenth century, such as a Danae after Primaticcio by Léon Davent (kept at the Metropolitan Museum, New York). The subject of our relief is certainly the ferryman to the Underworld in Greek and Roman mythology, Charon, who is paid for his passage by a young woman. The young woman probably represents Psyche, whose story is told in the Roman writer Apuleius' novel The Golden Ass. In love with Cupid, Psyche was forced by her mother Venus to undergo a series of trials designed to discourage her love for him. The final task imposed by the goddess was to retrieve from the Underworld a speck of Proserpina's beauty, something apparently impossible for a mortal like Psyche. With the help of a talking tower, the young girl discovered how to reach Pluto's kingdom and ask Charon the ferryman for passage, a moment immortalised in the present relief. After further tribulations, Psyche was finally granted immortality by Jupiter and was reunited with her beloved. Cupid. Because of its thematic link with the Underworld, it is possible that the present panel was conceived in the context of a funerary monument, but its narrative quality also suggests that it might originally have formed part of a decorative interior telling the story of Psyche. A love of antiquity and ancient myths had been cultivated at the French court since the reign of King Francis I, who commissioned Primaticcio, and his predecessor Rosso Fiorentino (1494-1540), to paint a series of allegorical and mythological frescoes and ornaments. For example, in the Ulysses Gallery at Fontainebleau - which was destroyed in 1738-39 but is partly documented by drawings, engravings and copies - Primaticcio devised a narrative programme that extended to fifty-eight episodes from Homer's Odyssey along the walls, and to images of ancient gods in oval medallions on the ceiling, painted between the mid-1540s and the mid-1560s. Engravings after the medallions and an autograph drawing by the master potentially linked to these medallions show that in terms of the form and composition of the figures, there are similarities between Primaticcio's work in the Galerie d'Ulysse and the present relief, confirming its close connection with the world of Fontainebleau.