The Lead Groups of Aeneas and Anchises.

Aeneas and Anchises.

 Made and Supplied by John Cheere (1709 - 87),

The Lead Sculpture at the Royal Summer Palace of Queluz, Portugal.

 Commissioned by Infante Dom Pedro (1717 - 86), younger son of King Dom Joao V.

Supplied in two tranches in 1755.

 The Garden was designed by Jean Baptiste Robillon (1704 - 82).

Details of the purchases are contained in Correspondence between the Portuguese Ambassador in London Don Louis da Cuha Manuel and the Foreign Secretary in Lisbon Sebasteao Jose de Carvalho e Melo (future Marquis of Pombal).

 A stipulation by Dom Pedro was that the statues not be embarrassingly naked and an assurance from the sculptor that they were "girdled".

 The sculptures exported from England to Queluz consisted in total of 9 Sculptural Groups, 57 individual figures and 72 lead vases.

 The first Collection sent in May? 1755 in 36 crates on board the ship Camberwell consisted of -

 

Meleager and Atalanta (as Diana and Endymion at Wrest Park).

Vertumnus and Pomona.

23 statues of Mythological figures -

Neptune, Meleager, Mercury, Fame, Apollo, Diana, Bacchus, Venus, Ceres and Flora.

A Gladiator and 4 Seasons,

4 Commedia dell' Arte figures, - (Pierrot, Harlequin, Scaramouche and Columbine).

4 Picturesque figures - Shepherd and Shepherdess a man with a flute and drum and a woman with a rake.

24 Vases.

 

Cost £290.5s. 2d including shipping - £340.18s. 6d.

The second lot of sculptures sent in 58 crates on the ship Nossa Senhora do Socorro in September 1755.

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The speed with which these sculptures were ordered suggests that John Cheere already had these objects in stock at his premises at Hyde Park Corner..

 7 Sculptural Groups -

Rape of Proserpine.

Aeneas Carrying his father Anchises.

Rape of the Sabine Women (another at Wrest Park).

David and Goliath

Cain and Abel actually Samson Slaying the Philistine from the Giambologa original then at Buckingham House.

Venus and Adonis (another at Wrest Park),

Bacchus and Ariadne.

 and 6 individual figures -

Hercules.

Meleager.

Atalanta.

Justice.

Mars.

and Minerva.

 and 16 animals -

4 Monkeys.

4 Lions.

4 Tigers.

2 Foxes a Harpy and an Eagle.

 4 Groups with holes for the large tanks and water spouts?

8 Boys to decorate the waterfalls.

48 Painted Bronze and gold vases.

 Cost with 10% discount £853.14s.1d.

For the restoration of this group see -

https://rupertharris.com/products/the-palace-of-queluz-aeneas-and-anchises

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Aeneas and Anchises.

Pierre le Pautre (1660 - 1744).

Marble, height 264 cm

The original in white marble was produced between 1697 and 1716 by Pierre Lepautre from a wax sketch entrusted to him by François Girardon in 1696.

 Made during the artist's stay at the Académie de France in Rome from 1697, transported to France in 1715 to adorn the garden of the Château de Marly, the work now kept in the Louvre Museum,

Signed P. LE-PAUTRE FECIT, 1716, was completed with the help of Jacques Bousseau. (1681 - 1740). 

A terracotta model in reduction of the original marble work is now kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In the 18th century, Lepautre himself had kept a copy in his workshop and Lalive de Jully, the famous introducer of Louis XV's ambassadors, also had another.

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Aeneas, carrying Anchises on his shoulders, and his wife and son fleeing Troy.

Print made by: Agostino Carracci, After: Federico Barocci, Published by: Donato Rasciotti 1595.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_V-8-186