37. Figure en bronze représentant le Gladiateur Borghese, entourage de Guillaume Berthelot (1580-1648), France, d'après l'Antique, première moitié du XVIIe siècle A bronze figure of the Borghese Gladiator, circle of Guillaume Berthelot (1580-1648), French, after the Antique, first half 17th century Brown patina, resting on an ebonised later socle, 33cm high, 43cm high with socle, (12 1/2in high, 16 1/2in high with socle) Provenance : Tomasso Brothers, Leeds; Sale, European Sculpture, Sotheby's, London, 6 December 2011, lot 48; Private Collection, Paris Guillaume Berthelot, French sculptor, trained and began his career in Rome in the early 17th century. He was strongly influenced by the antiquites he studied, restored and he saw while there. Returning to France in 1620, he was appointed ordinary sculptor to Marie de Médicis, for whom he worked on the Luxembourg Palace. He then became Richelieu's favourite sculptor, and was finally commissioned to build the cardinal's tomb at the Sorbonne. It should be noted that Berthelot's most important commissions in Rome came from the Borghese family in the early 1600s, who owned the original antique marble. It is also worth noting that one of his most important commissions while in Rome was for the Borghese family who owned the original antique marble, and that in Berthelot's posthumous inventory it specifically refers to a model of the Borghese Gladiator. The present bronze has close stylistic similarities to other bronzes ascribed to Berthelot, including another composition based on an antique source, a small, a small Diana the Huntress known in at least three versions (Cast in Bronze, loc. cit.). These two figures have the same type of face, with wide eyelids, a strong nose and a small mouth with expressive lips. A bronze version sold in 2005 (Sotheby's London, 8 July 2005, lot 59) and another in private hands (see Leithe-Jasper and Wengraf, op. cit. no.35, fig.1, p.298) date from the late 17th century and have been attributed to Roger Schabol (active. 1680- after 1714). See the following for comparable examples: F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900 (1981), no.43, pp.221-24; New York, Frick Museum, European Bronzes from the Quentin Collection, 28 Sept. 2004 - 2 Jan. 2005, M. Leithe-Jasper et P. Wengraf, no.35, fig.1, p.298; Paris, New York and Los Angeles, Musée du Louvre, Metropolitan Museum of Art and J. Paul Getty Museum, Cast in Bronze, French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, 28 Oct. 2008 - 27 Sept. 2009, G. Bresc-Bautier, G. Scherf et J. D. Draper eds., no.43, pp.62, 172-75