BERTRAND, Philippe

(b. 1663 Paris, d. 1724 Paris)

French sculptor. He was the son of the sculptor David Bertrand (d. 1697), who is best known for a series of elaborate plaster overmantels, probably dating from the 1690s, of which two survive at the château of Dampierre, Seine-et-Oise. In 1694 Philippe Bertrand supplied four circular stone allegorical medallions for the Arc de Triomphe in the Place du Peyrou in Montpellier (in situ). The Baroque elaboration of their composition and drapery is also apparent, in more refined form, in the small bronze group of the Rape of Helen (e.g. Fontainebleau, Château) with which Bertrand was admitted to the Académie Royale in 1701. The medium of bronze suited Bertrand’s fondness for fluid, graceful, and often flying bodies. Even in the grim subject of Prometheus Exposed he arranged the tortured man’s limbs to elegant effect. His group of Mercury conducting Psyche to Heaven (Salon of 1704) is virtually a reworking of the Rape of Helen design, with buoyant additional grace and sense of lightness - suitably enough for its theme of celestial ascent.

From 1705 he worked principally for the Bâtiments du Roi. His work under the direction of Jules Hardouin-Mansart included a plaster statue of St Satyrus, one of 11 statues by various hands planned for the four circular chapels at the Invalides (c. 1705; destroyed), and a rather academic female personification of Air for the Cascade Champètre in the park at the château of Marly (marble, 1706-09; Paris, Louvre).

Lucretia

One of a talented generation of French sculptors, Philippe Bertrand was active in commissions for the court in Paris and Versailles. He is better known for works in bronze, but he did produce marbles, and Lucretia is a fine example of his carving style. It was exhibited at the Salon of 1704 in Paris.

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The Rape of Helen

In 1701 Bertrand became a member of the Acad�mie on presentation of his small bronze Rape of Helen, which he subsequently showed at the Salon of 1704. From Giambologna’s treatments of the theme of the Rape of a Sabine Woman, Bertrand took the device of making the apex of his groups an outstretched arm with gesticulating hand. But with him Helen hardly seems to resist the action of Paris, who moves with balletic ease. Such forcefulness as exists is restricted to the bent, toiling boatman, over whose bare back Helen seems coquettishly to dangle a slim foot.

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