BUST OF MINERVA FRANCE, RENAISSANCE PERIOD Marble H.... Lot 38

BUST OF MINERVA FRANCE, RENAISSANCE PERIOD Marble H. 55 cm, W. 34 cm, D. 20 cm This white marble bust on a doucine pedestal represents Minerva, the Roman goddess of War. Presented at mid-bust, she is wearing a helmet with protruding arches and a pointed edge, like the "imperial" roofs that crowned Renaissance castles. Her round face, bordered by thick locks of hair descending to the nape of her neck, shows a determined look comparable to that of the Pallas engraved by Marc Antonio Raimondi (ca. 1480-1527/1534) at the beginning of the 16th century. Like her, our statue is clothed in a drape with tight, wet folds, decorated with a plastron with volutes on the shoulders and a Gorgon's head in relief on the chest. His features, however, denote a more serene expression. This quiet strength that emerges from our figure is found in the features of the God Mars sculpted by Jean Goujon (documented from 1540 to 1567) in the Louvre Palace (fig. 2). The martial dimension is attenuated by its bust-like presentation. The soft treatment of the flesh evokes here an allegorical portrait, that of a court lady in Minerva.