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Three Muses Scuplture 22" High 13" Base - $850 (Westminster)
80th near lowell
condition:
like new
make / manufacturer:
Pegasus
model name / number:
Three Mises
size / dimensions:
22" x 13" base
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Purchased in Greece.
22" High 13" Base
Created by Pegasus.
The statue features the figures embracing in a close circle or holding hands.
They were minor goddesses of charm, beauty and goodness. Lovely detail of the three Graces.
The Sculpture
"three muses," the specific classical composition featuring this exact "Pegasus" stamp on its base is almost always a reproduction of The Three Graces (Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia) rather than the Muses.
In classical art, the Three Graces are traditionally sculpted standing close together, embracing in a circle.
The maker's mark or stamp on a marble or alabaster sculpture, features a winged horse and the word "PEGASUS" made in Greece, similar to markings found on vintage Greek stone craft pieces.
This stamp is a mid-to-late 20th-century workshop mark utilized by souvenir and fine-art replication studios based in Greece to verify that the piece was crafted using genuine bonded or cast Greek alabaster stone.
The image shows an engraved maker's mark on a white carved piece, which is a signature mark commonly found on vintage Greek carved alabaster replicas.
Maker's Mark BreakdownThe Symbol: A flying winged horse enclosed inside a flag shape.
The word "PEGASUS" carcs along the top edge of the flag.
Regarded internationally as a masterpiece of neoclassical European sculpture, The Three Graces was carved in Rome by Antonio Canova (1757 – 1822) between 1814 and 1817 for an English collector. This group of three mythological sisters was in fact the second version of an original – one commissioned by Joséphine de Beauharnais, first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Taking its motif from ancient Greek literature, The Three Graces depicts the three daughters of Zeus, each of whom is described as being able to bestow a particular gift on humanity: (from left to right) Euphrosyne (mirth), Aglaia (elegance) and Thalia (youth and beauty). The first version of this piece was commissioned by one of the era's most famous women, Joséphine de Beauharnais, who was by then the divorced first wife of Napoleon. In May 1814, before Antonio Canova had completed the sculpture, De Beauharnais died. John Russell, the 6th Duke of Bedford, visited Canova's studio in Rome, Italy, in December that year and, impressed by the artistry of The Three Graces, told Canova he wanted to acquire the finished marble. De Beauharnais' son, Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, also wanted to buy the group his mother had commissioned, so Canova offered to make the Duke of Bedford a 'replica with alterations'.
Soon after he accepted this offer, in January 1815, the Duke wrote to the artist saying,
I frankly declare that I have seen nothing in ancient or modern sculpture that has given me more pleasure … I leave the variations in the group … entirely to your judgement, but I hope that the true grace that so particularly distinguishes this work will be completely preserved.