Young Woman With A Butterfly Or Psyche - Bronze Statuette. Late 18th - Early 19th Century

French School of Sculpture from the first third of the 19th century - Young Woman with a Butterfly or Psyche. Beautiful bronze proof with a very finely chiseled brown patina depicting, seated on a rocky mound with foliage and flowers, a young woman dressed, with an Antique hairstyle, her bust endowed with ocellated Butterfly Wings, - an attribute assigned to the divine wife of Eros: Psyche. By turns smiling and tender, she is delighted with a fragile butterfly - symbolizing the amorous versatility of feminine nature - which has come to rest on one of the folds of her draped himation, which she seeks to capture with a delicate gesture. Unsigned. Antique cast presented on a circular molded ogee base in red Griotte marble. Dreamy Psyche: Chastely dressed in the Antique style in an enveloping embroidered chiton, her hair tied in a wavy chignon surrounded by a diadem of spring flowers, a young woman of youthful beauty with a haughty carriage is depicted gracefully seated, her bust roughly three-quarters view, on a small, leafy rocky hill studded with flower sprays. This balanced pose accentuates the delicate play of curves established by the two arms of this modest female figure with ocellated Butterfly wings, - attribute of the wife of the persevering Eros, God of Love: Psyche. In a suspended gesture marked by exquisite prettiness, she, holding a fine fabric between the slender fingers of her left hand, prepares to capture - or vice versa - a small Butterfly that has come, wings half-spread, to curl up in the tight folds of a himation spread over her thighs. By turns playful and cuddly, the young woman observes, smiling, the fragile lepidoptera, symbolizing the lightness, the unpredictability of her own feminine nature as well as the transience of Love freed from gentle constraints. Animated by a profound poetic feeling, this bronze statuette of neo-classical precedence holds the attention by the grace and elegance emanating from its composition with its wise formal eurythmy. Softness of lines in perfect harmony with its knowingly orchestrated posture, gestures and expression at once precious, restrained and playful individualize it. Furthermore, the "naturalist" treatment of the rocky mound with its rough edges adorned with meticulously executed flowers, like the "virtuoso" treatment of her meticulously arranged hairstyle or the tightly folded draperies encircling her feminine forms, enhance the nuanced modeling of this small-scale sculptural work. Its aesthetic allegiance, the great finesse of its chiseling, its mounting methods on the one hand, and its allegorical subject borrowed from Ancient literature and Greco-Roman mythology, which experienced an unprecedented vogue in European arts around the 1800s, on the other hand, invite us to date this feminine effigy, which tenderly and poetically evokes Psyche, to the end of the 18th century or the first third of the 19th century. Similar to the Butterfly that stands still for a moment, this ravishing Psyche with tenderly playful gestures will delight anyone still seduced by the loving and gentle unpredictability of feminine nature. French School of Sculpture from the end of the 18th century or the first third of the 19th century. Materials: Bronze; Griotte red marble. Dimensions: of the statuette: H.: 30 cm; W.: 22.5 cm; D.: 16 cm. Base: H.: 3 cm; Very good original condition.