Phryne
Jean-Jacques (James) PRADIER
(French, born Geneva, 1790 - 1852)
Phryne
Date1845
MediumBronze
Dimensionsobject: 26 in. (66 cm)
ClassificationSCULPTURE
Credit LineGift of Rowe Collection
Object number2021.30.1
Subject(s)
- women
- nudes
Collection
- 19th century French
- 19th century European
On View
Not on viewLabel TextPradier rose to become one of the most successful sculptors of his generation, receiving important public commissions, including the twelve colossal personifications of Victory (1843) that guard Napoleon’s tomb at the Dôme des Invalides in Paris. Pradier not only knew how to curry favor with royalty to receive lucrative commissions; he also knew how to cultivate the bourgeois market for tabletop bronzes like this: essentially erotica clothed in mythological guise. This is a reduced replica in bronze of a life-size version in marble, now preserved at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble. The ancient Greek courtesan Phryne was found innocent of the charge of impiety, purportedly after exposing her naked chest to the tribunal, who were so moved by her beauty that they acquitted her – a convenient pretext for the sculptor to proffer the female nude.
