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Description

A life-size female nude with outspread wings alights upon a cloud, which is blown from a mask’s mouth. The mask is of Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind and of winter. In her outstretched right arm, she holds a long trumpet to her lips. In her left hand, she holds a shorter trumpet. This bronze sculpture was probably made in France during the nineteenth century as a replica of a bronze of the same subject by Pierre Biard (1559--1601), La Renommée (Fame), which was made around 1597. Biard’s sculpture (now in the Louvre, Paris) was commissioned for a funerary monument. It is modelled on Giambologna’s bronze sculpture of the Roman god Mercury, which was made around 1580. Biard may have seen a cast of one of the four versions of this sculpture when he travelled to Rome between 1577 and 1580.

Fame

possibly 19th century

Accession Number

N/A

Medium

bronze, cast

Dimensions

166 × 144 × 87 cm

Classification

Painting

Museum

The National Gallery, London

London, United Kingdom