Style Symbolism / Ref.12393

Jacques-Louis GAUTIER (according to a model of), "Mephistopheles and the witch from Macbeth", Fireplace decoration

This mantelpiece decoration is composed of three parts, a clock and two cups. These three elements are mounted on quadrangular bases of black marble with Red Cherry marble inlays resting on furniture glides. The clock is the support of a large bronze figure entitled 'Mephistopheles,' of which the model was sculpted by Louis-Jacques Gautier. This character, inspired by the protagonist of the same name in the 'Faust' by Goethe, is represented with a long slender shape. He is dressed according to the style of the sixteenth century, when the story of the German novelist takes place: extremely adjusted breeches adopt the shape of the body of the devil, revealing muscles and bulging veins. His body is arched and he surrounds his chest with both arms, leaving his hands with long tapering fingers cling to his own limbs. He wears a ducal cap from which a long feather escapes. His face, and with a split goateeand a tough look inspires fear. On his left flank, he carries a big sword  reaching until the ground. His two legs are crossed. The left foot is covered with a shoe, while the right foot ends in a horse's hoof. To his left sits a pedestal topped with a broken column made of black marble. 

In the pedestal a clock face was installed.  

The two flat-bottomed bowls have handles in the shape of intertwined snakes. A medallion, representing a face surrounded by flames, was placed in the center of each cup. These cups are placed on a high square-shaped pedestal, occupied by a recessed arch on one side. In each niche sits a bronze figure. On one side, we find 'Mephistopheles,' the other, 'The Witch from Macbeth', mounted on her broom, ready to fly for the Sabbath.  

Born in Paris in December 1831, Jacques Louis Gautier was first a student of François Rude (1784-1855). He was at the Salon from 1850 and until 1868, during which he would present mostly sculptures and artwork. At his first show, he exhibited a bronze entitled 'Misery' to be acquired by the Duke of Luynes. Evidence of his quick rise to fame, he exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1855 and 1867. In 1855, in the section of Industrial Arts, he had a bronze statuette which was 84 cm high and called 'Mephistopheles' whose model was created in 1853. Indeed, in a handwritten letter dated 20 February 1859 and held in the collection Jacques Doucet (mf XXIV B, 19493-19496), Jacques Gautier established a record of his various works. During the year 1853, he wrote: 'Statuette of Mephistopheles sold to Mr. Duplan and manufacturers of bronze suppliers from the Court of Holland, exhibited at the Exposition Universelle (industrial). A copy sold to the Duchess of Alba. Another is in the cabinet of his Majesty the Emperor. ' In this letter, we learn that in addition to the firm Duplan et Salles, Gautier provided several models for to the  ounders of Deniere, Boy as well as  Christofle. However, it seems that it was the young firm Duplan et Salles which had the availability to the model of 'Mephistopheles'. This is what Alfred Busquet suggests: 'MM. Duplan et Salles are young publishers very active and very intelligent. They published this strange Mephistopheles, with such a grimacing profile and so long, that we could see it without any surprise in the display of the main shops of Paris '(Alfred Busquet, 'Modern Bronzes and contemporary bronze III ', in The Artist, 1856, Sixth Series, Volume II, p. 275). Later, during the 'Mephistopheles,' Gautier created a 'Witch from Macbeth,' with a slender and elongated profile. These are the two sculptures that we see on the mantelpiece. With Gautier, the special taste for dire characters and the evocation of evil forces is directly inherited from the Romantic sculptors, notably Feuchère who had made ??a 'Satan' some twenty earlier and who published numerous copies of it in the years in 1850.  

Mephistopheles is illustrated in numerous reproductions in the works, notably in The Romantics to Rodin. French Nineteenth Century Sculpture from North American Collections, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980, No. 249, p. 281. The witch from Macbeth is illustrated in Pierre KJELLBERG, Bronzes of the nineteenth century, Dictionary of Sculptors, 2005, p. 380.