Bidspirit auction | GRAND TOUR: After BARTHÉLÉMY PRIEUR,

GRAND TOUR: After BARTHÉLÉMY PRIEUR, French (1536-1611), Narsissus, (Standing Youth), probably 19th century, bronze, brown patina, mounted on a stepped tortoiseshell and picqué work arabesque decorated plinth, figure 20.8cm high, 34.5cm high. Literature: See Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Accession: M.3-1938 for same figure with identical size, Note:  Comparisons between the present work and  Michelangelo’s ‘a Dying Slave’ for the unfinished tomb of Pope Julius II have been made by Historians. The pose however clearly is influenced by classical prototypes, in particular a figure of Narcissus also called The Genius of Eternal Rest, a Roman marble of the late 2nd / early 3rd century AD (currently at the Louvre). A cast of this model appears prominently in a painting by Rubens, A Bearded Man in profile holding a bronze figure.