The Wounded Amazon, large brown and green patinated... Lot 49

The Wounded Amazon, large brown and green patinated bronze sculpture after the antique. 19th Century. Signed F. Barbedienne Founders and with Reduction Mecanique stamp. Measurements: 60 x 22 x 16 cm. The Amazon is dressed in a short draped tunic held at the waist by a kopos, with her left breast bred. Her right leg and pelta - the shield of Amazons - leans against a tree trunk. The helmet is placed on the ground. Her right arm is raised above her head. This patinated bronze is after the antique. A Roman marble example from 1st-2nd century CE can be viewed at the Metropolitan Museum. Another example by Luigi Valadier circa 1780 in Rome housed in the Vatican Museums known as "Amazone Mattei". The foundry F. Barbedienne was founded in Paris in 1838 by Ferdinand Barbedienne and Achille Collas, the latter inventor of a machine to mechanically reduce the format of the sculptures. At first they were dedicated to the production of bronze reproductions of sculptures from Roman and Greek antiquity, such as the one presented here. Their first contract to publish works created by a living artist was signed in 1843, with the sculptor François Rude. During the following years, after surviving the economic collapse of 1848, the Barbedienne house signed contracts with many of the sculptors active in Paris at the time, including David d'Angers, Jean-Baptiste Clesinger, Antoine Louis Barye and others. Achille Collas died in 1859, after which Ferdinand Barbedienne was left as sole partner in a firm that had grown to approximately three hundred workers. In 1865 he was appointed president of the Association of Broncists, a position he held until 1885. However, the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and the consequent shortage of raw metals, forced Barbedienne to interrupt his artistic production, although he signed a contract with the French government to make cannons, which allowed him to keep the foundry open. After the war, he resumed his sculptural production and put even more effort into signing contracts with various sculptors. At his death in 1891, he was praised as the best foundryman in France, and was called by Albert Susse "a source of pride for the nation". The management of the foundry then fell to Barbedienne's nephew, Gustave Leblanc, who continued the high quality of production and opened branches in Germany, England and the United States.