Workshop of Jean-Jacques CAFFIERI (1725-1792) - Lot 189

Workshop of Jean-Jacques CAFFIERI (1725-1792) Plaster group depicting a woman reclining next to a funerary monument, with a dog, a cassolette and a cypress by her side. Signed: "fait par JJ CAFFIERI en 1767". Louis XV period. Wooden base painted in imitation of veined white marble. Height 42.5 Width 45.3 Depth 22.5 cm (accidents, missing parts, restorations) Jean-Jacques Caffieri exhibited the terracotta group "L'Amitié pleurant sur un tombeau" illustrated in a "salon view" by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin(1) at the Salon of 1767. Diderot, favorably impressed by this group, describes it: "On the left, we see a cassolette where perfumes are burning. The odoriferous vapor spreads over a cube supporting an urn; from behind the cube rise a few branches of cypress bent over the urn. On the right, mourning, lying on the ground, one arm resting on the canopy, her head resting on her arm, the other arm falling limply on one of her thighs, the figure of Friendship. This tomb model is simple and beautiful. The whole is picturesque, and the figure of Friendship has nothing to do with the parts of art. The position, the expression, the drawing, the drapery are all good. But what is it that designates Friendship rather than any other virtue?"(2). An identical plaster once owned by the farmer-general Beaudot de Rougemont, and preserved by his descendants, is on display at the Musée du Louvre. Another copy belonging to the Cabinet de Monsieur Godefroy was sold in 1785(3). (1) Drawing reproduced in the exhibition catalog: "Diderot et l'Art de Boucher à David", Exhibition October 5 1984-January 6 1985, Paris Hôtel de la Monnaie, p. 91, no. 27. (2) ibid. p. 443-445 (3) Sale of Monsieur Godefroy's Cabinet, Paris April 25, 1785, no. 203.