Charon And Mercury Crossing The Styx - Bronze - F.f. Roubaud

Rare bronze print representing "Charon and Mercury on the boat crossing the Styx" by the sculptor François Félix Roubaud (1825 - 1876).
This model was created in 1870 and is in the collections of the municipal museum of Bourg-en-Bresse.

Charon is the ferryman of Hell. Its function is to bring across the River Styx the souls of all those who must enter the kingdom of the dead, sparing neither youth, nor beauty, nor valor. To be able to board their boat, each deceased must pay their right of passage, in the form of an obol (a Greek coin of low value), otherwise their souls would be condemned to wander without finding peace. Literature and theater present him as a bearded old man. He shares with Mercury the qualifier “conductor of souls”.
Mercury is the god of travelers, shepherds, traders, thieves and orators. He leads souls to Hell.

François Félix Roubaud, known as Roubaud the elder, is a sculptor trained at the Lyon School of Fine Arts between 1846 and 1849. He entered the Paris School of Fine Arts and became one of the last students of James Pradier, who died in 1852. For the tomb of the latter, he executed the bas-relief of Light Poetry based on the work of the master. In Lyon he carried out the decorations of several public buildings, notably the courthouse for which he sculpted La Force and La Justice, as well as medallions on rue Saint-Jean. In Paris, he created decorations for the Louvre Palace and the Luxembourg Palace.

Old bronze with dark brown patina.
Signed FF Roubaud on the boat.
In a perfect condition.