Jean Cocteau & Jean Marais, famous French couple

Jean Cocteau was a French artist in all possible avenues, willing to excel in everything, from writing poems, fiction, novels, theatre plays, to creating ceramics, drawings, paintings, frescas, as well as designs, sculpture and jewellery. He spent a major part of his life (25 years) with the French actor Jean Marais. Before Jean Marais, he had a strong relationship with the young talented writer Raymond Radiguet (Devel in the Flesh - Le Diable au Corps) and also with Edouard Dermit.

Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais at the beach - 1939

Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais - photo by Beaton

Born on July 5, 1889, he died aged 74, on Oct 11, 1963. As well summarized by Wikipedia : ''Jean Cocteau is best known for his novel Les Enfants Terribles (1929), and the films Blood of a Poet (1930), Les Parents Terribles (1948), Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orpheus (1949). His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Yul Brynner, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky, María Félix, Édith Piaf, Panama Al Brown, Colette and Raymond Radiguet.''

Among other honors, Cocteau was made a member of the Academie Française in 1955, and at the Royal Academy in Belgium as well. Below is the picture of Jean Cocteau dressed in his French Academy suit designed by Lanvin, and with his sword designed by himself and handcrafted by Cartier.

Detail of sword handle

 Here are some sculptures, ceramics, potteries and jewellery made by Jean Cocteau.

photo Annick Puvilland

Faun - bronze medallion

 

Chevre- pied - bronze - 1958

     

Pecheur de perles - bronze - 1958

And I could not resist to add a few drawings, some from his Livre Blanc (the White book).
Jean Cocteau drawings have often been inspired by sea life, sailors, etc as seen in his Livre Blanc, and other drawings made for Querelle, famous book written by Jean Genet.

Jean Cocteau in Toulon - 1930

 

 

Jean Cocteau sculpture of a faun inspired by Jean Marais face

Jean Marais (1913-1988), his lover, after a successful career in movies then theater, became a ceramist and sculptor as well.

Jean Marais photographed by Raymond Voinquel

Here are some works from him. The first serie of pictures shows 'Le Passe Muraille' (Going through walls) life size bronze sculpture displayed in Paris, inspired by the book from Marcel Aymé.

Other sculptures from Jean Marais :      

head of Jean Cocteau sculpted by Jean Marais - bronze

head of Jean Cocteau sculpted by Jean Marais - terra cotta

Le Chantre

Arno Breker, German sculptor who did many males sculptures as we will see in another post, made both heads from Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais, as seen below.

Arno Breker bronze sculpture - 1963 - head of Jean Cocteau

Arno Breker bronze sculpture - 1963 - head of Jean Marais

Some links :

Several videos / documentaries about Jean Cocteau
http://www.cocteau-art.com/default_gb.html
http://www.jeancocteau.net/bio1_en.php
http://tetu.yagg.com/2009/11/22/le-couple-cocteau-marais-est-un-exemple-gay-aujourdhui-encore/
http://quintessentialpublications.com/twyman/?page_id=26

'The pain' or better 'Sadness' expressed by Emilio Gallori

'Il Dolore' is the original title of this nice marble sculpture made by the Italian sculptor Emilio Gallori.

This sculptor initially started as a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy.
He then moved to Rome, and spent some time in England as well.

Emilio Gallori was born in Florence (Firenze) in 1846, and died in Siena in 1924.

His sculpture is often called Il Dolore, but it seems the real original name was 'Tristitia' or 'sadness', and is displayed in Siena, at the Palazzo Publicco, since 1930. It was possibly located before in the Paris ' Jardin des Tuileries'.

We wonder what pain or sadness affects this young man...

Sources:
http://www.iltesorodisiena.net/2015/08/il-palazzo-pubblico-la-sala-del.html

Nisus and Euryalus

To remain on the spirit of gay love, I suggest for today's sculpture Nisus and Euryalus, the beautiful work from Jean-Baptiste Roman, French sculptor born 3 years after the French Revolution.

photo by Juanda Contreras.

Nisus and Euryalus were two soldiers from Troy, and their love and frienship was so deep that they were ready to die for each other if needed. Nisus was older than Euryalus.

Sculpture detail - the lovers' hands

Sculpture detail - 3 feet

As Virgil wrote in his "Eneide' (that I had to translate years ago!) they were though warriors, serving under Enee. They are a typical example of the Greek lovers from that time, ie a teenager and a young man, whom many served in the famous Theban army. And would fight with more power than a lover to protect his lover ?

The sacred band of Thebes was a group of selected elite soldiers, made of 150 couples of male lovers. They won many battles during almost 30 years, like the famous one of Leuctra, between 378 BC and 338 BC.

Nisus and Euryalus left their home to follow Enee in Italy. One evening, as Enee was not there, Nisus who was guarding the soldiers camp thought he could go inside the Rutules enemy territory to capture their chief. Euryalus approved the project, but did not want Nisus to go alone. He asked someone to take care of his mother, and they left together.

Departure of Nisus and Euryalus, by the French painter Girodet

After having killed several sleeping Rutules soldiers, they met a Roman soldiers group led by Volcens. Nisus succeeded to escape, but Euryalus was captured, and would soon be killed. So seeing this from a distance, Nisus came back and asked to be killed instead of the young Euryalus. But Euryalus throat was cut, Nisus killed Volcens to revenge for it, before to be killed himself as he was embracing Euryalus.
This is the summary of Virgil story in the 9th book of Eneide.

Nisus and Euryalus by the French sculptor Jean Baptiste Roman -1827 - Louvre Museum - Paris

Sculpture detail- photo by Olivier Daaram Noolant

The sculptor Jean-Baptiste Roman is born, and died, in Paris (1792-1835). Several of his marble sculptures are displayed in the Louvre museum, usually around mythology or historic figures.
He won two 'Prix de Rome', had sculptures commissioned by the king Louis-Philippe the first.
He also sculpted contemporary portraits like the bust of the French painter Girodet.
Jean-Baptiste Roman received the Legion d'Honneur in 1827.

Sources: Wikipedia, Louvre Museum.

The male nude in art exhibitions : Masculin Masculin (2) and the Faune Barberini

Another male nude sculpture, very sensual, that was displayed at the 'Masculin Masculin' exhibition held in Paris earlier this year is the Barberini faun. It is a life-size marble statue also called the Drunken Satyr, sculpted during the 3rd century BC. This statue can be seen in Munich, Germany, at the Glyptothek (from Greek, it means a coffer of engraved works) Museum, which gathers 1000 years of Roman and Greek sculpture.

Barberini Faun, Glyptothek Munich, Germany. 

                          
This sculpture was found in the 1620s below the Castel San Angelo in Rome, which in Antiquity had been Hadrian's Mausoleum. Work on the fortification was undertaken by the Barberini Pope Urban VIII in 1624. The sculpture made its first documented appearance in a receipt for its restoration, 6 June 1628, when it already belonged to the Pope's nephew, Cardinal Francesco Barberini.

The statue was quite damaged when it was discovered, so lots of restoration works took place. The final result gives a strong sexual feeling, showing at first a naked muscular young man, sleeping or more precisely recovering like after a party and the statue is now considered an example of erotic art. Some says that Bernini, who took part in the restoration process, reinforced that aspect!

It is actually a 'faun' : the Roman equivalent of a Greek satyr. In Greek mythology, satyrs were human-like male woodland spirits with several animal features, often a goat-like tail, hooves, ears, or horns. Indeed, on his back, there is a little animal tail, and on his head an ivy crown.



Detail showing the 'tail'

Nudity in Greek art was very common. And this faun was reproduced on a Nymphenburg palace porcelain service in the 1830s. And also housed in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome.

Later on it was sold (in 1799), to the sculptor and restorer Vincenzo Pacetti, who tried to sell it to English and French collectors such as Lucien Bonaparte. But the Barberini succeeded to cancel the sale. Eventually it was sold to Ludwig, Prince of Bavaria, who had planned a special room in the Glyptothek, before the purchase was even finalized! The Glyptothek opened in 1830 to house Ludwig's sculpture collection.



A marble copy was sculpted by Edmé Bouchardon at the French academy in Rome in 1726.  And in 1775 the Duc de Chartres bought it for his elaborate garden plan at Parc Monceau. Then it went to the Parc de St Cloud, later to the Jardins du Luxembourg. Currently the sculpture is displayed at the Louvre Museum.

Marble copy by Edmé Bouchardon - 1726 - Louvre Museum, Paris

Another copy by sculptor Eugène-Louis Lequesne was given to France in 1846. It is now located in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA).

A video showing and explaining the original sculpture can be seen here.

Sources : Wikipédia, Louvre Museum, Glyptothek, Orsay Museum.

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.

  

The nude man in art exhibitions (1) : 'Masculin Masculin' with 'Mercury inventing the caduceus'

We thought it would be interesting to show a few sculptures from exhibitions focussing on the male nude in art. Todays' sculpture was displayed during the 'Masculin Masculin' exhibition held recently in Paris (Sep 2013 - Feb 2014) at the Orsay Museum. Approximately 20 male nude sculptures were selected by the curator/director Guy Cogeval and his team (together with 180 other art pièces mainly paintings and photographs). The period ranged from 1800 until today.

Among them, for today, I selected 'Mercury Inventing the Caduceus' done by Jean-Antoine-Marie Idrac in 1878.  This French sculptor is born in Toulouse in 1849 and died early, in 1884 of typhus. He studied under Alexandre Falguière and also Pierre-Jules Cavelier. He won the famous Prix de Rome in 1873. He also exhibited at the Salon from 1877, and got a first class medal two years later for our selected marble sculpture.

 

This large marble piece was sculpted in Rome, Italy, in 1878. Several years later, in 1886, a copy in bronze was casted, which was displayed at the Exposition Universelle (World Fair) of 1900 in Paris(and today in Toulouse, at the Musée des Augustins).

 

 



One of the other curators of the 'Masculin Masculin' exhibition, Xavier Rey, stated that male nude anatomy and study was extremely important for every artist training. With some humour trait, Guy Cogeval added that this sculpture shows probably the cutest buttocks of the museum!
Indeed, several of this exhibition's sculptures and paintings contain a clear homoerotic aspect. And part of the exhibition is specially focussed on the male as an object of desire.

 

 

Why ' inventing the Caduceus ' ? The mythology has many stories about this! One reports that Mercury wanted to find a symbol for his role as the god of healing and messenger of the gods. He received a gold stick from Apollon. Later on, seeing two snakes fighting, he throw his gold stick towards them, the snakes curled around the stick and stopped fighting.

The serpent-coiled staff, or caduceus, is sometimes illustrated with wings at the top end to match Mercury’s winged helmet.

 

Some sources, videos and links:

Video about 'Masculin Masculin' exhibition (in French with English subtitles)
Other video about this exhibition showing some master pièces.
Orsay Museum website
Article in French in the 'Tribune de l'Art' website