Gilded bronze sculpture representing a young girl dressed in a chiton, playing jacks. It rests on a circular base in molded Vert de Mer marble. Slight wear to the gilding. Often attributed to Pradier (1790-1852), "La Joueuse d'osselets" is in fact a copy of the famous antique statue of the same title discovered by Vigna Giustiniani in 1732, now in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. A cast of this statue, made at the Académie de France in Rome, served as a model for several artists who stayed at the Academy, including Claude Francin and Augustin-Félix Fortin. Around 1732, Etienne Parrocel (1696-1776) also produced a drawing based on the antique sculpture, listed in the Mona Lisa database and now in the Louvre. The significance of these knucklebones, which certainly had a symbolic dimension and echoed new uses and beliefs in ancient Greece, may also have played a part in their rapid spread. The chance played by the player here refers to fate and the gods who preside over it. For a young girl destined for the role of wife, this means entrusting herself to Aphrodite, a deity of growing importance from the 4th century BC onwards. Thus, the "Aphrodite shot", where each bone falls on a different face, was the best shot. Similarly, a young girl awaiting marriage could be named philastragalè, i.e. "loving jacks". Placed in the tomb of an adolescent girl, the figurine could symbolize the thwarted destiny of the bride-to-be, who died before her time. Offered as an ex-voto in a shrine, it could also underline the passage from the status of an adolescent to that of a married woman. The presence of real jacks, sometimes found in impressive numbers in certain tombs or sanctuaries, confirms the symbolic value of these game pieces. Bibliography: Joconde database. Late 19th century, Circa: 1880 Dim: W:27cm, D:27cm, H:30cm.
- Reference :
- 2232
- Availability :
- Sold
- Width :
- 27 (cm)
- Height :
- 30 (cm)
- Depth :
- 27 (cm)
- Identifier Exists:
- False
