Allegory of Science
Medium
Plaster
Dimensions
24 × 36 cm (9 7/16 × 14 1/8 in.)
Classification
statuette
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
5830
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In 1863 Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux received a major commission for the pedimental sculpture on the south side of the Pavillon de Flore at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. For this monumental work, he designed three allegorical figures of France seated on an imperial eagle (a reference to the Emperor Napoleon III), flanked by semi-recumbent nude males representing science and agriculture. These plasters demonstrate Carpeaux’s initial conception as it was presented to the commissioning architect; they also...
About the Artist
Jean Baptiste Carpeaux · 1827–1875
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827–1875) was a French sculptor and painter who became the most dynamic and expressive sculptor of the Second Empire period, bridging the traditions of Romantic sculpture and the emerging naturalism of the later nineteenth century. Born in Valenciennes into a working-class family, he studied at the Petit École and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under François Rude and F...