This is the sixth and final article in a series which I have been writing about nude statues in the formal gardens of Europe. I began this series by trying to explain why Louis XIV filled his garden at Versailles with nude statues, so I will end it with an article about these statues.
The photograph at the top of the page is of a bronze statue representing the Seine River. Etienne Le Hongre portrayed the Seine as a bearded man who is crowned with grapes and flowers; in his right hand is an oar which is adorned with crayfish, while with his left hand he presents a cornucopia which represents the richness of the land through which the river flows.
The Seine is one of eight bronze sculptures representing the rivers and streams of France which are placed along the edges of two large pools located directly before the château's garden facade, along with eight nymphs and nine groups of children. All of these sculptures were cast by Jean-Jaques and Jean- Balthazar Keller between 1685 and 1694.
The Seine is an original work of art which was inspired by ancient statues. The photograph below is of a sculptural group representing the Nile; this was found in the ruins of Rome's Temple of Isis and Serapis and has been in the Vatican collection since the pontificate of Leo X (1513-1521). The Nile is depicted in the way that the Greeks usually portrayed river gods, as a strong and bearded man. He leans on a sphinx who represents Egypt. Behind the sphinx is a cornucopia which symbolizes the riches of the nile valley. In his right hand is a sheaf of wheat as a symbol of fertility. There are sixteen boys in the sculptural group, each representing one of the 16 cubits which the Nile rose when in flood. The boy seated in the cornucopia represents the highest level of the flood waters which distributed rich soils over the Nile's floodplain.
Many statues of river gods adorned the gardens of ancient Rome; for example: two bearded male gods, personifying the Tibur and Nile rivers, were found on either side of a broad walk leading to the Canopus of Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli. This tradition of placing statues of river gods in gardens was revived during the Renaissance. The river gods in the garden of the Villa Lante at Bagnia are of especially high quality, but they are surpassed by the river gods at Versailles, which are among the greatest examples of seventeenth century French sculpture.
