Ethra Weeping Over The Head Of Phalante, Bronze After Grégoire Giraud

Bronze bas-relief after Grégoire Giraud (1783–1855)
France, first half of the 19th century
On the back a founder's mark to be identified After the marble bas-relief in the Granet Museum in Aix-En-Provence
Period walnut frame
Dimensions with frame 26x25 cm

Patinated bronze bas-relief illustrating the scene of Aethra, a grieving mother, weeping over the head of Phalante. Taken from an ancient subject reinterpreted by Grégoire Giraud, the composition mixes heroism and romanticism in a marked neoclassical vein.
The scene is loosely inspired by Greek mythology: Aethra is traditionally known as the mother of the hero Theseus, a noble and tragic figure, symbol of heroic motherhood. Phalante, meanwhile, is a young Spartan leader to whom legend attributes the founding of Tarentum, in southern Italy. He embodies the civilizing hero whose destiny is to bring order at the cost of exile or sacrifice. There is no direct link in ancient sources between Aethra and Phalantus. Their meeting in this work is part of a poetic composition, specific to the romantic imagination of the 19th century: Aethra becomes here the universal mother, bearer of pain and resignation, while Phalantus, a young warrior ready to leave, symbolizes tragic heroism.
The work bears witness to a modeling of great finesse: the muscular tension of the young man contrasts with the tragic softness of the maternal gesture. The figure of Aethra, standing, draped in the antique style, embodies a sorrowful nobility, while Phalantus, half-kneeling, lets himself go in a posture of abandonment.

Grégoire Giraud, painter and sculptor trained in Rome, was one of the representatives of French neoclassicism. Inspired by Antiquity, he often treated mythological subjects, in the manner of the artists of the Renaissance.