Pair Of 18th-century Marble Busts

A pair of busts depicting a man and a woman of the Roman high nobility.

The faces and hair are carved from white Carrara marble; each head is crowned with a diadem. The base is made of antique green marble from Greece. The female bust wears a necklace of dark green marble from Greece. Her stola is made of Sarrancolin Ilhet marble, Montmeyan breccia, and Brignoles violet marble, and her palla is made of yellow Brocatelle marble from the Jura.

The male figure wears a chlamys made of onyx marble, fastened with a fibula of dark green Greek marble.
These busts are copies of ancient busts from the Hellenistic period.

Highly prized in the 17th and 18th centuries, busts of a similar style adorn the interiors of the Salon de Diane at the Palace of Versailles, the Grand Salon at Vaux-le-Vicomte, and the Jacquemart-André Museum.

18th century

H. 75 x W. 65 cm and H. 75 x W. 60 cm

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