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About the artwork
Art form: Sculpture
Materials: Marble
Date of creation: 1771
Artwork in selections: 2 selections

Description of the artwork «Winter»

In April 1764, the 42-year-old Marquise de Pompadour unexpectedly died, and in the workshop of her beloved sculptor Etienne Maurice Falcone, the last of the statues she commissioned remained unfinished - the marble "Winter".

No wonder Falcone was considered the favorite master of the omnipotent de Pompadour, who made him the main sculptor of the Sevres Porcelain Manufactory. Statues of Falcone's work adorned the Marquise's suburban residence, Bellevue Castle. These statues - laconicly refined, with perfectly calibrated proportions - were like allegorical portraits of Madame de Pompadour, whom Falcone sincerely admired. Beauty, gaiety and a lively mind, wit and musicality once captivated Louis XV, who made Joan Antoinette Poisson his official favorite. Falcone liked her innate tact, her rare ability to combine insane luxury with ease. In sculpture"Allegory of music" he portrayed the audience success of de Pompadour, who played a major role in the musical performance of Aigle.

It seems that “Winter” could also become an allegorical portrait of the marquise. A captivating young woman is sitting on an ice cube. At her feet is a bowl that has cracked from frozen water, a symbol of all restless and homeless in a large, inhospitable world. But it’s also saved - near: by the hem of her robe, a woman, like winter in a snowy veil, gracefully covers flowers. What is not an allegory of patronage, which the Marquise willingly and generously provided to sculptors, artists, musicians? ..

- This may be the best thing I could do, and I dare to think that she is good- Falcone will write later.

Pompadour died before she had time to pay for the order. Falcon was not easy, he was counting on this money, especially since he had spent considerable funds of his own on the material for the sculpture. With great difficulty, with the help of the Marquis de Marigny, brother of Madame Pompadour and the director of the Royal Buildings, Falcone managed to transfer the order of "Winter" to the king's account instead of the statue of "Minerva" ordered earlier to him. "Winter", as soon as the sculptor finished it, they planned to place it in the Botanical Garden of the Small Trianon.

But getting into the Trianon of the Falconet's “Winter” was not fate. The will, or rather the irony of fate, was that this sculpture should have appeared new patron- and (although it was almost impossible to imagine) even more omnipotent than the former!

In the mid-1760s, Falcone, on the recommendation of his friend, the philosopher Denis Didro, received an invitation to Russia to create a monument to the “converter and legislator” Peter I. After extensive negotiations that were conducted with the Russian side of Didro and Marigny, Empress Catherine II agreed by the time Falcone’s arrival in Russia purchased at the expense of the Russian treasury and all unfinished work from his workshop. Of course, “Winter” also falls into their number.

So the statue followed the sculptor of a distant northern country.

For a long time, Falcone was busy with his main project, and only occasionally returned to the development of "Winter". It will be completed only 5 years after arriving in Russia, in 1771. In the lively correspondence of those years that struck between the sculptor and the empress, “Winter” is sometimes mentioned - Catherine reports that she had heard about the beauty of the statue. “I promise you, upon my return, a great admiration for your Winter statue, which is said to be wonderful.”She wrote.

The sides of the cube on which Winter sits are decorated with the image of the zodiac signs of the winter Meiats. At first they wanted to place the sculpture in the Botanical Garden. But then it was decided to send her to Gatchina, where "Winter" adorned the palace of the throne successor of Paul I. In 1932, from the Gatchina Palace-Museum, "Winter" was transferred to the State Hermitage. “The strict simplicity of the composition, a clear closed outline of the figure, realistic interpretation of the details reveals the sculptor’s ability to subtly combine the conventions of allegory language with fidelity to nature, - says on the museum website. - Contemporaries considered this statue a masterpiece. ”
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