Carcel Lamp with allegories of Poetry and Philosophy by François-Félix Roub

Bronze.
France.
1857.
h. 25.59 in.

This Carcel lamp in bronze bears the inscription: ‘Paris. 1857. F[rançois-]F[élix] Roubaud. Stat[uai]re.’ François-Félix Roubaud, a French ‘statuaire’ born in 1824, a student and assistant of Pradier, and a graduate of the Beaux-Arts in Paris, made his debut at the Salon of 1853. From 1855 to 1857, he created significant reliefs for the decoration of the Daru and Denon pavilions of the ‘new Louvre’ : for the Daru pavilion, Sculpture and Painting, and for the Denon pavilion, Poetry and Philosophy, listed in the “catalogue of works executed for public monuments” at the Salon of 1857.

It was from this latter relief, Poetry and Philosophy, particularly acclaimed at the Salon of 1857, that Roubaud designed this bronze : it precisely replicates, while adapting it to free-standing sculpture and adding a trophy, the highly specific iconography chosen for the Louvre. This iconography is extensively described and explained in an article from the journal L’Art du XIXe siècle, published in February 1857 :

‘These two bas-reliefs represent one Poetry, the other Philosophy. Here, it is Poetry, in the form of a young and beautiful woman, her head crowned with laurels, her forehead inclined over a lyre, her gaze lifted toward the sky in an attitude of dreaming and ecstasy; there, it is Philosophy, her divine sister, her forehead adorned with a diadem and a scepter in hand. But why the diadem, and why the scepter ? Through the insignia of power he attributes to his creation, did the artist intend for us to recognize the dominion that belongs to Philosophy, or to predict the dominion that must one day be hers ? Or is this merely the bitter irony of a skeptical mind? This last thought could not belong to M. François Félix Roubaud. Certainly not; as a learned artist, he has merely followed tradition.

However, the ingenious idea that is his own is to have placed under one of Philosophy’s feet a book, by means of which she seems to rise above ordinary realms. For us, this conception carries a profound lesson ; we see in it an exhortation to Philosophy to rise and grow ceaselessly, in the relentless pursuit of eternal truths.

Oh! No, one could not mistake the nature of this artistic idea ; we do not merely admire the Michelangelesque [sic] attitude of the queen of science ; we are unwittingly drawn into the deep meditation in which we see her immersed ; for her, and for us, the final word of the enigma has not yet been found.’

The article especially praised Roubaud, ‘classé parmi l’élite de nos sculpteurs contemporains’, for his monumental statuary, including, in addition to the reliefs of the ‘new Louvre’, monumental allegorical figures for the Opéra and the Palais de Justice in Lyon.

Roubaud is also the author of a small corpus of rather rare bronze works, dated early in his career, which often still bear the mark of Pradier’s style. This is particularly true for his bronze group depicting Papirius Praetextatus Supplicated by His Mother, in which the female figure, Papirius’ mother, recalls through her posture the bronze allegory of Philosophy.

Sources

Charles Aride, 'Chronique', dans L’Art du XIXe siècle, Paris, février 1857 ; Stanislas Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'École française au dix-neuvième siècle, t. IV, Paris, 1914-1921.