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SCAILLIET, Émile-Philippe

1846-1911

Phryné

Phryné

after 1874

ivory

statuette

Dimensions (HxWxD): H. 10 13⁄16

Acc. No.: 71.368

Credit Line: Acquired by William T. or Henry Walters

Photo credit: The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

© Artist : public domain

Baltimore, Maryland, The Walters Art Museum

thewalters.org

Provenance

  • Baltimore, William T. Walters (1820-1894) or his son Henry Walters (1848-1931) Collection (date of acquisition unknown)
  • 1931, Walters Art Museum, by bequest of Henry Walters

Bibliography

  • Museum's website (accessed April 28, 2021)
  • 1895 Gruelle
    R. B. Gruelle, Notes, Critical and Biographical: Collection of W. T. Walters, Indianapolis, J. M. Bowels, 1895, p. 213-214

Exhibitions

  • 2010-2011 Los Angeles/Paris/Madrid

    The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum; Paris, Musée d'Orsay; Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2010-2011

Related works

  • An ivory of this subject by Scailliet was exhibited at the Salon in Paris in 1874.
    Several versions are known.

Comment

  • Museum's website (accessed April 28, 2021):
    Phryné stands on an ivory socle mounted on a wooden base. Her elaborately braided coiffure is bound with a ribbon and a strand of graduated pearls. Turning her head, she shields her face with her left forearm. Phryné ambiguously counteracts this gesture of modesty by raising her right arm over her head to display her voluptuous torso to best advantage. In the 19th century, the famous courtesan was popularized by Jean-Léon Gérôme's masterpiece of 1861, "Phryne before the Tribunal," illustrating the titillating moment when the orator Hypereides won his client's acquittal by baring her bosom to the appreciative Athenian judges. Having served as the model for Praxiteles and Apelles as well, the subject of Phryné offered artists an occasion for representing an idealized nude. Gérôme's figure frequently served as the prototype for representations of Phryne in bronze, ivory, and silver. The Walters ivory differs from Gérôme's composition in the position of the figure's arms. An ivory of this subject by Scailliet was exhibited at the Salon in Paris in 1874. Several versions are known.