An Allegory of Statuary or Lament of Sculpture

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Pierre Biard the Younger, who had became enamored with Italian art after a visit to Rome, was appointed the court sculptor of Henri IV in 1609. This idiosyncratic etching includes text in both French and Italian, as well as a double self-portrait of the artist (as the two male figures on the right). The allegorical figure of Calumny reappears from the ancient lost painting of the Calumny of Apelles. By explicitly referencing a painting in a print about sculpture, Biard may be staging his own paragone, a debate tradition dating from antiquity in which one art form was compared with another.

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