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Lot Essay
The depiction of a young boy carrying a fruit-filled cornucopia and raising his right index finger to his mouth is a typical representation of the Hellenistic god of silence, Harpocrates. This figure was adopted by the Greeks in the 4th century BC from the Egyptian god, Harpa-Khruti or Child-Horus, who was the son of Isis and Osiris. To the Egyptians the adult Horus was considered the god of the Sun that each day overcame darkness and was therefore, by extension, a representation of fertility and rebirth. However, the Greeks partly misunderstood this iconography by confusing the gesture of placing the finger to the mouth - an Egyptian reference to infancy - with silence and secrecy.
The Givenchy bronze Harpocrates is a virtually identical copy of an ancient Roman marble that was formerly in the Giustiniani collection, Rome (see Visconti, loc. cit. and comparative illustration). Unlike other Harpocrates', both these sculptures also depict a small child sitting cross-armed on top of the cornucopia, which is a motif taken from the personification of the River Nile housed in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican. It is now generally accepted that this child, along with 15 others, on the River Nile represented the ideal height - sixteen cubits - that the Nile would need to rise in order to assure abundant fertility in Lower Egypt. Thus, despite Harpocrates misidentification by the Greeks as the god of silence, parts of the iconographical vocabulary are still relevant to the Egyptian myth of Horus representing new light and, by extension, rebirth and fertility.
Although the precise discovery date of the Giustiniani Harpocrates is not known, a reference to it is made in a Giustiniani inventory of 1638 that mentions: [168] Una statua antica ristaurata di un Silentio che il dito alla bocca tiene. Alt. palmi 3 ... 6 inc. a (Gallottini, loc. cit.). Around this time, one artist who was known to have been working for Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani both as an independent sculptor, decorator and restorer was the Fleming, Francois Duquesnoy (1597-1643). Duquesnoy was closely associated to Giustiniani for at least 10 years. He carried out a huge amount of work for the latter, including bronzes, stucco-work, restorations of antiquities, a portrait bust and even the design for the frontispiece of the Galleria Giustiniani. Given this close connection, it is likely that Duquesnoy and his close collaborators would have had the freedom and time to study the ancient marbles in the collection, and possibly even had the Marchese's approval to create a bronze statue based on one of them.
The subject matter of the bronze Harpocrates also fits very comfortably with Duquesnoy's preferred subject matter: the representation of young children. It is also rich with Duquesnoy's stylistic vocabulary. Consider, for example, the rendering of the dishevelled hair, the general facial features and the overall body types of the music-making cherubs in Santi Apostoli, Naples (Boudon-Machuel, op. cit., fig. 159) or indeed the same points on the figure of Cupid on the base of the Mercury that Duquesnoy cast for Giustiniani in around 1630 (ibid., p. 263). However, despite these general stylistic and compositional similarities, as well as the close connection between artist and patron, some less obvious but significant details also exist that discount Duquesnoy as its likely author. Consider, for example, Harpocrates' slightly older looking face, with less chubby cheeks and large open eyes. Consider also his proportionately smaller head, his slightly more muscular anatomy and the larger overall scale of the composition. All these factors indicate that the author of the Harpocrates was more likely someone that was closely associated to Duquesnoy though, at present, it is impossible to know who.
The Givenchy bronze Harpocrates is a virtually identical copy of an ancient Roman marble that was formerly in the Giustiniani collection, Rome (see Visconti, loc. cit. and comparative illustration). Unlike other Harpocrates', both these sculptures also depict a small child sitting cross-armed on top of the cornucopia, which is a motif taken from the personification of the River Nile housed in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican. It is now generally accepted that this child, along with 15 others, on the River Nile represented the ideal height - sixteen cubits - that the Nile would need to rise in order to assure abundant fertility in Lower Egypt. Thus, despite Harpocrates misidentification by the Greeks as the god of silence, parts of the iconographical vocabulary are still relevant to the Egyptian myth of Horus representing new light and, by extension, rebirth and fertility.
Although the precise discovery date of the Giustiniani Harpocrates is not known, a reference to it is made in a Giustiniani inventory of 1638 that mentions: [168] Una statua antica ristaurata di un Silentio che il dito alla bocca tiene. Alt. palmi 3 ... 6 inc. a (Gallottini, loc. cit.). Around this time, one artist who was known to have been working for Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani both as an independent sculptor, decorator and restorer was the Fleming, Francois Duquesnoy (1597-1643). Duquesnoy was closely associated to Giustiniani for at least 10 years. He carried out a huge amount of work for the latter, including bronzes, stucco-work, restorations of antiquities, a portrait bust and even the design for the frontispiece of the Galleria Giustiniani. Given this close connection, it is likely that Duquesnoy and his close collaborators would have had the freedom and time to study the ancient marbles in the collection, and possibly even had the Marchese's approval to create a bronze statue based on one of them.
The subject matter of the bronze Harpocrates also fits very comfortably with Duquesnoy's preferred subject matter: the representation of young children. It is also rich with Duquesnoy's stylistic vocabulary. Consider, for example, the rendering of the dishevelled hair, the general facial features and the overall body types of the music-making cherubs in Santi Apostoli, Naples (Boudon-Machuel, op. cit., fig. 159) or indeed the same points on the figure of Cupid on the base of the Mercury that Duquesnoy cast for Giustiniani in around 1630 (ibid., p. 263). However, despite these general stylistic and compositional similarities, as well as the close connection between artist and patron, some less obvious but significant details also exist that discount Duquesnoy as its likely author. Consider, for example, Harpocrates' slightly older looking face, with less chubby cheeks and large open eyes. Consider also his proportionately smaller head, his slightly more muscular anatomy and the larger overall scale of the composition. All these factors indicate that the author of the Harpocrates was more likely someone that was closely associated to Duquesnoy though, at present, it is impossible to know who.