Monday 5 December 2016

Bust of Plato in the Long Room Trinity College Library, Dublin.


The Marble Bust of Plato 
in the Long Room 
Trinity College Library, 
Dublin.

Unsigned but almost certainly from the workshop of Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Most telling is the detail of the clothing which is very close to that of the third versions (BarberTerracotta etc see below ) of the Roubiliac busts of Pope.

To my eye there is something very workman like about this bust it shows none of Roubiliac's usual flare. The derivation from the Rubens engraving is obvious.






The Barber Institute Terracotta of Alexander Pope
by Louis Francois Roubiliac.
















Engraving after Rubens
Plato 
Lucas Vorsterman
291 x 189 mm.

From Twelve Greek and Roman Sculptures
c.1638.
 British Museum

Herm statue of the Greek philosopher Epicure (wrongly titled Plato) with curly hair and beard, bust almost seen in profile to right; from a set of twelve plates showing antique busts after drawings by Rubens.  c.1638 Engraving

Engraving after Rubens
Plato (actually Epicurus)
Lucas Vorsterman
291 x 189 mm.

From Twelve Greek and Roman Sculptures
c.1638.

Lettered in lower margin, with production details and title: "Ex marmore antiquo" and "P.P. Rubens delin. / L. Vorsterman sculp." and "Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ"
British Museum.

After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection). A drawing by Rubens is in the Morgan Library, New York, inv.no.III,161; a preparatory drawing by Vorsterman is in the Fondation Custodia, Paris, inv.no.5949; see F. Stampfle, 'Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Library', New York-Princeton, 1991, pp.156-157, cat.no.324.


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