36 Attributed to
PHILIPPE-LAURENT
ROLAND
French (Paris), 1746-181 6
Allegorical Group with a
Portrait Bust of an Architect
(possibly Pierre Rousseau),
circa 1780-179 0
Terracotta
67.3 cm (26!/ 2 in.)
97.SC. 9
This group centers around the bust of a man set on a classicizing, circular pedestal.
A female figure in antique costume and standing in the casual, cross-legged pose often
found in depictions of muses, wraps her left arm around the bust, which she points out
to two small children. One child sits upon a stool, looking up and gesturing toward the
portrait, while the other enthusiastically tries to climb the pedestal for a better view. On
the ground behind the standing child are the attributes of an architect—compass, square,
globe, books, and rolled sheets of paper—indicating the profession of the sitter. Finally,
a small dog, traditional symbol of marital fidelity and familial piety, sits behind the
female figure, suggesting another aspect of the life of the subject, his role as a family man.
This group integrates various elements typical of commemorative sculpture. The
combination of portrait bust and surrounding figures, for example, can be found in tomb
sculpture, although here the figures do not mourn but rather celebrate the sitter. In fact,
the placement of a portrait bust on a classicizing base is a convention of celebratory
images of famous men. The casual interaction of the figures with the portrait almost
suggests a familial relationship, while the didactic gesture of the woman recalls the
popular eighteenth-century moralizing subject of a mother instructing her children.
The attribution of the group to Roland is based on the soft, lyrical classicism
of the female figure, an aspect of his style developed during a five-year stay in Rome.
Furthermore, the sentimentality and the naturalism of the group—evident in the easy
pose of the woman and the careful rendering of her anatomy, in the playful energy of
the children, and in the softly modeled, sensitive quality of the bust—are characteristic
of documented sculptures by Roland. MCEUROPEAN SCULPTURE 10 1