Oreste by Pierre-Charles Simart

Pierre-Charles Simart was a French sculptor, born in Troyes on 27 June 1806.
Many of his art pieces are located in Troyes, and Paris. For today's post, I will show you his Oreste.

A few extracts from his biography:
Pierre-Charles' father was a carpenter, and his father sent him very early (at 6 years old) to follow drawing classes. While helping his father between 13 and 16 yo, he sculpts inside the family house.

La main d'Oreste - photo by Michèle Fleury

At the age of 17, he got a monthly scholarship from his native town, to pursue sculpture classes in Paris.

At the age of 27, he already won the first Grand Prix de Rome, with the bas-relief  in plaster 'Le Vieillard et les enfants'.
Regarding 'our' Oreste, one is in marble, visible at the Art museum of Rouen (France).
 

Oreste réfugié à l’autel de Pallas

   There is also a similar sculpture in bronze, located Place St Nizier in Troyes (France).

Photo by Jacques.

This sculpture, and the myth, also inpired the French artists Pierre & Gilles. Their Oreste art piece, photograph below, was part of the exhibition entitled 'Heroes' organized by the Gallery Templon in Paris in 2014.
 

 

Other works from Pierre-Charles Simart include 'decors' for the Paris townhall such as 'Architecture' and 'Sculpture'. Last but not least, he sculpted during 6 years the tumb of Napoléon 1st in Paris' Invalides, including not only the famous statue itself, but also the 19 allegoric bas-reliefs.

He was an elected member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts in 1852.

He 'stupidly' died in Paris on 27 May 1857, reportedly falling from a public bus.

Sources:
Wikipedia
Jacques Schweitzer website about the fabulous city of Troyes

The Ephebus (or Alexander) from Agde, France

Having just spent a few days in that area in the South of France, to attend a sculpture master class, followed by some relaxing time riding bicycle alongside the Herault river, I passed in front of the Archeological Museum of Agde displaying the famous Ephebus. So I wanted to share this unique sculpture story, which was discovered just 50 years ago.

This large antique bronze was found on September 13, 1964 in the Herault River, in front of Agde cathedral, by Jacky Fanjaud, together with other divers having a strong passion for submarine archeology. The left leg was discovered 6 months later, not too far away in the river.

 

The statue was seriously damaged, so it was sent to the Louvre museum in Paris to be restored by the specialists teams and laboratories there, where it stayed for years. Indeed the sculpture is exceptional : it is the only Greek bronze statue discovered in France, probably casted 4 centuries before JC.

Almost 20 years after that discovery, the statue was eventually given back to Agde city, and the condition was the building of a submarine archeological museum, who could display not only this sculpture, but also the numerous collections of items discovered in that area.

The statue represents a beautiful Greek teenager, in the classical nude heroic pose. His left shoulder carry a folded chlamys, also rolled around his left forearm. Which is usually a sign of a Macedonian soldier.

It looks like an athlete, but many experts say it is actually a portrait of Alexander the Great, as many traits have been similarly sculpted by Lysippe of Sicyone, the official portrait sculptor for the royal family in Macedonia, who did many bronze sculptures and liked the beauty of young athletes.

The body with slim torso shows thin muscles, fitting the adolescent youth. The head is slightly turned towards the shoulder. The face shows a youth profile, thin lips, high cheekbones. The head diadem is similar to the one in golden silver on the grave of Phillip II from Macedonia.

Sources:

- Cap d'Agde Museum (see their website here)
- Tourism Office of Herault

To see a video about the sculpture discovery, in French, click here).
 

The underwater archaeology collections of the Musée de l'Ephèbe (Ephebus Museum) are displayed in 4 large departments:

- The Royal Navy: canons and cargoes from wrecks from the 17th to the 19th century, architectural items for ships and those used to fit them out...

- Ancient Navigation: naval architecture (anchors) and cargoes (amphorae, crockery, etc.)

- Ancient Bronzes: outstanding collections of bronze works of art, the most famous of which are the statues of Caesarion and Ephebus, portrait of Alexander the Great.

- Protohistory: more than 1,400 objects that are evidence of the life of the first inhabitants, before the Greeks arrived.

  

Stadio dei Marmi (3) and the nude male bronze sculptures

Although the majority of male statues in the Foro Italico, or Stadio dei Marmi actually, are in marble, there are also a few male athletes statues in bronze. On the Western side of the Stadio dei Marmi, we can observe two couples of nude male athletes wresling. The sculptor is Aroldo Bellini, who also executed several of the marble statues.

Aroldo Bellini was born in Perugia in 1901, had his training at the Academy of Fine Arts, and went to Rome in 1932, where he executed most of his sculptures for the Stadio dei Marmi. He was part of the project to create a gigantic monument for Mussolini, the Duce, which was planned to be taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York. But he only achieved a foot, and the head, before the fall of the Mussolini's regime.

And two other single athletes have been represented in bronze, including one archer. The sculptor is unknown.