Ferdinand Barbedienne

FERDINAND BARBEDIENNE (France, 1810-1892)
"Hippomenes and Atalanta".
Bronze and marble base
With seal of the Barbedienne Foundation.
Measurements: 41 x 20 x 14 cm.
Pair of bronze sculptures representing Hippomenes and Atalanta. Legend has it that Atalanta, the Greek goddess of the race, was abandoned in a forest on top of a mountain by her father Iasion, disappointed because he was not a boy. The goddess Artemis sent a bear to raise her. Atalanta took a vow of virginity and declared that the only man she would marry had to beat her in a foot race or give up his life. Hippomenes defies the young woman and, during the race, leaves behind three golden apples that the goddess of love Aphrodite gave him. Atalanta stops to pick them up, allowing Hippomenes to win the race.
The F. Barbedienne foundry was founded in Paris in 1838 by Ferdinand Barbedienne and Achille Collas, the latter inventor of a machine to mechanically reduce the format of sculptures. At first they were dedicated to the production of bronze reproductions of sculptures from Roman and Greek antiquity, such as the one presented here. Their first contract to publish works created by a living artist was signed in 1843, with the sculptor François Rude. During the following years, after surviving the economic collapse of 1848, the Barbedienne house signed contracts with many of the sculptors active in Paris at the time, including David d'Angers, Jean-Baptiste Clesinger, Antoine Louis Barye and others. Achille Collas died in 1859, after which Ferdinand Barbedienne was left as sole partner in a firm that had grown to approximately three hundred workers. In 1865 he was appointed president of the Association of Broncists, a position he held until 1885. However, the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and the consequent shortage of raw metals, forced Barbedienne to interrupt his artistic production, although he signed a contract with the French government to make cannons, which allowed him to keep the foundry open. After the war, he resumed his sculptural production and put even more effort into signing contracts with various sculptors. At his death in 1891, he was praised as the best foundryman in France, and was called by Albert Susse "a source of pride for the nation". The management of the foundry then fell to Barbedienne's nephew, Gustave Leblanc, who continued the high quality of production and opened branches in Germany, England and the United States.