HD photographs of Hercules And Minotaur statue in Tuileries Gardens - Page 8
We were in the 1st Arrondissement of Paris at the Jardin des Tuileries, when we took these high definition photos showing a statue group called Thesee Combattant le Minotaure, which was sculpted by Etienne Jules Ramey.
Paris Statues
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This first HD photo shows a statue in the Tuileries Gardens called Thesee Combattant le Minotaure, which in English translates to Theseus Combating the Minotaur, although some places refer to this as Theseus Fighting the Minotaur or Hercules and the Minotaur.
The Jardin des Tuileries is a very historical garden first laid out for Catherine de Medici, the widow of King Henri II back in the 1500s, yet over the centuries there were many changes, with one of the most significant being when the landscape architect Andre Le Notre redesigned the gardens in the mid 1600s and from this point on, the kings of France decided to embellish the grounds with different statues.
So here you can see a close up photograph showing a part of the Thesee Combattant le Minotaure statue with the minotaur having a bulls head, yet presumably quite young, being that it has small horns, and it shows overpowering this mythological creature of half man, half beast.
And here you can see Theseus holding a club in his right hand in a poise ready to strike the minotaur, and although this is not as old as some of the statues within the Jardin des Tuileries, it was produced in marble between the years of 1821 and 1827.
It was actually during the July Monarchy and the reign of King Louis Philippe I, that several additional statues by artists of the time were placed within the Tuileries Gardens, especially within the Grand Carre area and around the Grand Bassin Rond, and this particular statue of Thesee Combattant le Minotaure was put in place in 1832.
Theseus Combating the Minotaur was prduced by Etienne Jules Ramey who was born in Paris in 1796 and initially studied under his father, Claude Ramey, to become a French sculptor, which was prior to entering the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and at the young age of 19 he won the Prix de Rome, meaning he could further his studies and career at the Villa Medici French Academy on Rome.
Etienne Jules Ramey started exhibiting works at the Salons for French artists from 1822 and received several different commissions for statues and sculptures for tourist attractions in Paris like the Eglise de la Madeleine, Musee du Louvre plus this one for the Jardin des Tuileries, along with working on a triumphal arch in Marseille.
The marble statue of Theseus Combating the Minotaur was initially presented at the 1827 Paris Salon by Etienne Jules Ramey before being acquired by the French state and placed on a large pedestal base for display within the Tuileries Gardens, which was by then open to the public, although where this statue stands was also an area once reserved for the pleasure of royal family residing at the former Palais des Tuileries, which was destroyed by fire a few decades later.
Yet this close up photograph shows the tourist information plaque fixed to the pedestal base of the marble statue group depicting Thesee Combattant le Minotaure, and as you can see at the very bottom, it shows an inventory number of L.L. 448, and is now one of the statues looked after and maintained by the Musee du Louvre.
So here is another view of the Theseus and the Minotaur statue based upon the theme of a story in Greek mythology, which as we mentioned earlier, can be found within the Grand Carre area of the Jardin des Tuileries in the 1st Arrondissement by the Large Round Basin, and it is positioned by one of the parterres in the formal area laid out by Andre Le Notre called the Demi-lune Reserve nord.
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