Prometheus Bound
Nicolas-Sebastien Adam (1705-1778) · 1762
Prometheus writhes against the rock of the Caucasus, chained by the wrists, his body arched in a spiral of agony while the eagle sent by Jupiter tears at his liver. Every part of the marble is in motion: the chain snaps taut above his head, his mouth opens in a scream, drapery whips around the rock and the bird's wings beat against his side. Walk round the group and notice that there is no calm viewpoint; the sculptor wanted the pain to be visible from every angle. It is the Titan who stole fire for mankind, punished for eternity, treated with the theatrical energy of the late Baroque.
Nicolas-Sebastien Adam, younger brother of the Lambert-Sigisbert Adam whose Neptune stands nearby, submitted this subject to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture as his reception piece. The sketch was approved in 1735 and the plaster model in 1738, but the marble was only delivered on 26 June 1762, twenty-seven years later, and shown at the Salon of 1763. Seized with the Academy's collection in 1793, it went to the museum of the French school at Versailles and probably entered the Louvre in 1849.
Did You Know? The sculptor took twenty-seven years to deliver the marble that the Academy had approved as a sketch in 1735.
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