After Jacques Sarazin (1592-1660)

Ratton - Ladrière Gallery, Paris;

Where acquired, 12 November 2012.

The model for this marble bust is a terracotta bust of Saint Peter by Jacques Sarazin, part of a series of the twelve Apostles and Christ kept in the sacristy of the chapel at Versailles. The iconography of this series, which came from the sculptor's workshop and was sold to the French royal collections in 1666, appears to be unprecedented in French sculpture. It is probably a representation of the Last Supper, without attributes or the usual set up of Christ and the apostles gathered around the table. Christ, shown frontally, must stand in the centre, framed by the six busts of the apostles looking to the right, naturally placed to his left, and the other six, looking in the other direction, to his right.

Our model can also be compared to the half-length figure of Saint Peter, commissioned by Pierre Séguier (1588-1672) along with another of Mary Magdalene (Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes Church, Paris), marble reductions of which are the Louvre Museum (inv. MR SUP 57 for Saint Peter).

RELATED LITERATURE

B. Brejon de Lavergnée, G. Bresc-Bautier, F. de La Moureyre, Jacques Sarazin. Sculpteur du Roi 1592-1660, exhibition catalogue, Musée du Noyonnais, 1992, pp. 96-98.