CAST FROM THE MODEL BY JEAN-BAPTISTE CARPEAUX (FRENCH, 1827-1875)

In 1865, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was commissioned to model one of four monumental reliefs for the façade of Charles Garnier's Opéra in Paris. The allegorical group depicting the Spirit or Genius of Dance surrounded by Dancing Bacchantes and a putto was completed four years later. Carpeaux's masterpiece met with strong criticism as the dancing figures, in particular the fleshy bacchantes, were deemed far too suggestive for a public monument. The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War stilled the controversy and the relief remained on the façade of the building until 1964 when it was removed to the Louvre, owing to the general deterioration of the surface. In 1989 the relief was moved to musée d'Orsay where it still is today.