Henry de TRIQUETI (1803-1874) Concert of angels, 1872 Medallion carved in very low relief in white marble with gold highlights Signed with the initials "T.H" and dated "1872" on the face at knee level of the right angel D. 51 cm Provenance: Château du Perthuis. Throughout his career, Triqueti was attracted to angelic figures, mediators between the divine and human worlds, as much by his great admiration for Renaissance art as by his deep religious feelings. In a tondo sculpted in very low relief, a tribute to Donatello's stiacciato, he brings to life, in a rotunda setting, a choir of seven bust figures. They are accompanied by two winged putti supporting the antiphonary in the foreground, similar to the reliefs in Luca Della Robbia's Cantoria in Florence's Duomo. The sculptor created one of his first angelic choir scenes in 1861, when he acquired a 15th-century musical manuscript in Florence for the Duc d'Aumale, which lacked a frontispiece (Allégorie de la musique, frontispice du manuscrit de chansons, pen, black and red ink on parchment, 38.7x28.5cm, Chantilly, Musée Condé, n°inv. DE1208). In 1863, he again chose this subject for one of his first works using the tarsia technique, commissioned by the Fane de Salis family to decorate the church at Teffont Evias, near Salisbury. Produced in 1872, this large marble medallion, one of the artist's last works before his death in 1874, is directly inspired by the angel figures invented by the sculptor for his imposing Wolsey Chapel project, which occupied him from 1864 until his death. We find the same idea as in David dictating the psalms under divine inspiration, dated 1865, and above all the same types of busted angels adorning the lower borders of the scenes (Ange tenant un livre fermé, étude pour un bas-relief du panneau d'Abraham et l'ange ramener Isaac à Sarah après le sacrifice, Paris, ENSBA, n°inv. EBA 5048). An early version of the composition is known to us, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans (n°inv. 2035). This could be the artist's first thought: the 61cm-diameter plaster medallion is annotated with two compass-drawn circles. The diameter of one of the circles corresponds to the size of our marble tondo of 1872, with a modified composition: the two cherubs have been added to the foreground. When his faithful collaborator on the Wosley chapel and lover, the sculptor Susan Durant, died tragically in 1873, leaving behind their secret, illegitimate 4-year-old son, Triqueti embellished his funerary monument in the Père Lachaise cemetery with a bronze proof of this work. What better proof of love and gratitude could he have given than to entrust his beloved's grave to these invisible messengers inhabiting Paradise? [...] WE INVITE YOU TO CONSULT THE DETAILED DESCRIPTION BY DOWNLOADING THE DOCUMENT "FICHE COMPLÈTE" ON DROUOT.COM OR BY REFERRING TO THE PDF CATALOG.