VRIES, Adriaen de
(b. ca. 1556, The Hague, d. 1626, Prague)

Mercury and Psyche

1593
Bronze, height 215 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Adriaen de Vries's first documented independent work is the over life-size bronze group of Mercury and Psyche, a work that owes much in composition and style to similar two-figure groups by Giambologna. This group was executed in Prague for Emperor Rudolf II. It was taken as booty by the Swedish army, then transported to France by Queen Christina of Sweden in 1654 after her abdication.