Ormolu mantal clock, depicting Pallas Athena, attr. to Gérard-Jean Galle

Spectacular Empire clock depicting the goddess Pallas Athena in bronze with a brown and gold patina.

She is dressed in a peplos with many deep folds and wears a helmet with a feather crest. She holds her spear in her right hand, her left hand rests on her hexagonal shield encircled by a laurel frieze and adorned with twisted fire pots.

The clock's dial is integrated into the mask of Medusa in the center of the shield. Griotte marble base decorated with a double rosette motif as well as laurel wreaths and foliage.

It rests on a rectangular plinth in gilded bronze with a water leaf frieze. Wire movement.

Pallas Athena (Minerva in Roman mythology) is the Greek goddess of wisdom, patron of the arts and sciences, and the goddess of war and protector of heroes. Clocks depicting Athena were very popular in the early 19th century. Claude Galle created a first model with a circular shield against the goddess's chest. His son Gérard-Jean Galle continued to produce it after her death, then created a second version—our model—with the shield resting on the ground.

Similar examples of clocks are known: one delivered by Galle in 1823 for Stockholm Castle, one in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Furniture Collection (inv. no. GML 4235), and one in the Marmottan Museum in Paris. To create this spectacular clock, Claude Galle (1759-1815) was inspired by ancient statues in the Louvre, such as the Athena "Pallas of Velletri." His son Gérard-Jean Galle (1788-1846) succeeded him in 1815 after a brilliant career in the Napoleonic armies by taking over the workshop located on rue Vivienne in Paris. (In 1810, Claude Galle had requested that his son be relieved of his military obligations to help him, it was not until the fall of Napoleon and the death of his father that Gérard Jean took over the management of the business). He successfully perpetuated the family tradition by creating spectacular bronze art objects by publishing his father's models and new creations such as our clock. In 1819, his creations were rewarded at the Exhibition of Industrial Products organized at the Louvre where he won a silver medal for his clocks and bronze lighting fixtures. He subsequently became a supplier to the crown and the highest aristocracy (Duke of Richelieu, Marquis of Martel, Viscount of La Rochefoucauld). The July Revolution The 1830s and the rise of the Orléans family to power damaged his business. He died ruined in 1846.


Bibliography:
- KJELLBERG Pierre, The Encyclopedia of French Clocks from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century, Editions de l'Amateur, Paris, 1997, p. 412, fig. B.
- OTTOMEYER Hans & PRÖSCHEL Peter, Vergoldete Bronzen, 1986, p. 397, pl. 5.8.12.