English 18th Century Portrait Sculpture: Jaques Saly and the Equestrian Statue of Frederick V,Copenhagen

The Bronze Equestrian Statue of Frederick V,

at the Amalienborg Palace,

Copenhagen

Jaques Francois Joseph Saly (1717 -76).

1768.
Cast 2nd March 1768 by Pierre Gors and unveiled 7 July 1771.

Height 12 metres.

Saly published two reports on his statue:

Jacques François Joseph Saly, Description de la statue équestre que la Compagnie des Indes Orientales de Dannemarc a consacrée à la gloire de Frédéric V, København 1771

and Jacques François Joseph Saly, Suite de la description du monument consacré à Frédéric V par la compagnie des Indes de Dannemarc, København, 1773.

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Proposal for a monument with fountain of Frederick V for the Amalienberg Square.

Marcus Tuscher (1705 - 51).

Pencil pen and grey wash 355 x 472 mm

1750

Equestrian Statue of Frederick V

Amalienborg Palace

Copenhagen

Engraving - Johan Martin Priesler

Saly

1768

The Royal Library, Copenhagen. Müllers Pinakothek 6, 34, fol plus

(photograph © The Royal Library, Copenhagen)

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The Royal Square of Amalienborg with Saly's equestrian statue of Frederick V and Nicholas-Henri Jardin's project for Frederick's Church,

Johan Martin Preisler (after drawing by L.A. Le Clerck),
1766,
Folio (photograph provided by Danish National Art Library)

Text and illustrations above from

http://www.riha-journal.org/articles/2011/2011-jan-mar/kragelund-abildgaard-and-schadow

see previous blog entry.

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For the 1997 - 2011 restoration of the statue see -

https://www.apmollerfonde.dk/projekter/rytterstatuen.aspx

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Jaques Francois Joseph Saly (1717 -76).

For a very useful brief biog of Saly see -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Saly

Saly was born in Valenciennes to Francois Marie Saly and his wife Marie Michelle.

After studying with Guillaume Coustou in Paris, in 1738 Saly won the first prize for sculpture and at the end of 1740 went to the French Academy in Rome where he worked with Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain. He got to know Piranesi who had just arrived from Venice whose passion for Roman antiquities he admired.

His Vases, produced in 1746 and dedicated to the De Troy, director of French Academy, show the strong influence of Piranesi. On his return to France in 1751 he was admitted to Académie Royale.

However Saly interpreted the Classical / Rococo in a very personal manner merging the classical art of this contemporaries with the renaissance tradition of the “grotesque” in which vegetables, animals and marine deities blend elegantly and harmoniously.

see - http://www.stanzadelborgo.it/scheda/475/en/vasa-a-se-inventa-atque-studii-causa-delin-et-incisa

These prints are the most fantastic and inventive etching of the time in the tradition which began in the 16th century with Enea Vico,

In 1753 left for Copenhagen to work there for the Royal Family. When he returned to France he was given a studio at the Louvre.