French bronze-caster (b. 1714, Paris, d. 1774, Paris)
Gilt bronze, height 45 cm
Wallace Collection, London
Bronze-caster, collector and designer, part of a French family of artists of Italian descent. He was the eldest son of Jacques Caffiéri, one of the most celebrated bronzeworkers in the reign of Louis XV. His younger brother was Jean-Jacques Caffiéri, one of the most eminent sculptors of the second half of the 18th century, producing monumental works as well as small-scale allegorical groups and some of the liveliest and most elegant portrait busts of the time.
Philippe succeeded his mother as Marchand Doreur Privilégié du Roi in 1743. Trained by his father, and an associate in his business from 1747, he continued the workshop and succeeded his father as Sculpteur et Ciseleur Ordinaire des Bâtiments du Roi. In 1754 he was admitted to the Académie de Saint-Luc, Paris, and on 16 January 1756 became a master bronze-caster and chaser. Under his direction the Caffiéri workshop continued to prosper by working for a prestigious clientele, and Philippe became wealthy. He was able to form a collection that included drawings and paintings by Rembrandt, David Teniers the Younger, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Chardin, François de Troy, Louis Lagrenée, Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard and sculptures by Jacques-François-Joseph de Saly, Etienne-Maurice Falconet and Michel-Ange Challe.
This elaborate bronze appropriately surmounts a long-case clock by Nicolas Petit and J-J Lepaute; Apollo's chariot pulls the sun across the sky marking the passage of the day. The design recalls the celebrated gilt-lead figure of 1671 by Tuby in the Bassin of Apollo at Versailles.
