Lot 85 | Gianfrancesco Susini - Werkstatt | Figure of the dragon Ladon

FIGURE OF THE DRAGON LADON.

Susini - Werkstatt, Gianfrancesco.
Date: 2nd half 17th century.
Maker/Designer: After a model by Pietro Tacca (1557-1640).
Technique: Bronze with beautiful olive-brown patina. Later added, dark green marble base.
Measurement: Height figure 26cm, height incl. base 31,5cm.

Provenance:
- Kenneth Jay Lane Collection
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, October 21-22, 1977, lot 456.
- Collection Prof. Thomas Olbricht, purchased 27th of January 2011, Sotheby's New York, Lot 427.

Exhibitions:
- Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Abbott Guggenheim Collection, March 3 - September 11 1988, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, cat-no.32.
- Falling Fictions, me Collectors Room Berlin, Auguststr. 68, 10117 Berlin, 2015.
- Gediegenes und Kurioses aus der Sammlung Olbricht, Museum Folkwang, Museumsplatz 1, 45218 Essen, 2016.

The expressive small sculpture shows the dragon Ladon, a figure from Greek mythology, which at the behest of the goddess Hera guarded golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides. He was defeated by Hercules, who had to perform twelve tasks to atone for his deeds, including procuring the golden apples for Eurystheus.
An ensemble from the possession of Louis XIV, now in the Louvre, shows the presented model together with the figure of Hercules.