A small oval plaquette with a very finely sculptured scene showing four putti and a dog in a playful composition. This panel was part of a pair of plaquettes, the other of which showed four putti dancing and playing music. An all but identical plaquette and its pendant were sold by Galerie Kugel, Paris, in 1981, and are now part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection in Amsterdam (BK-2011-46-1 and BK-2011-46-2), where they are attributed to either Gabriel Grupello (1644-1730) after Frans Langhemans (1661-1710), or Frans Langhemans himself.
Frans Langhemans was a Flemish sculptor who primarily undertook grand sculptural commissions for churches and public areas. Gabriel Grupello was a Flemish sculptor who primarily worked in Brussels and Düsseldorf, and learned the sculptor’s art as an apprentice to Artus Quellinus. In the late seventeenth century, he set up shop in Düsseldorf. Grupello was made court sculptor by King Charles II of Spain, and also counted Emperor Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire, Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm II of Düsseldorf, King Louis XIV of France and Stadtholder William III of Orange Nassau (King William III of England) among his clients. From 1704 onwards, he resided at the Viennese court of Charles II and Charles VI, sculpting busts, statues and reliefs.
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