RENAISSANCE AND LATER BRONZES
RENAISSANCE AND LATER BRONZES
AN ITALIAN BRONZE MEDALLION cast with a portrait of Sigismondo Pandulpho Malatesta, Lord of Rimini (1417-1468), the reverse with Fortitude seated on an elephant, dated 1446, 8.2cm. Diameter, old cast.
A VENETIAN BRONZE FIGURE OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, standing with his weight on his left foot, holding a book of gospels in his right hand, wearing a belted hair shirt, red brown patina, (21.5cm.) second half I6th century, on marble pedestal.
William Wixom, Renaissance Bronzes from Ohio Collections, illustrates and discusses another version of this model in the Cleveland Museum of Art, in particular with reference to a Seines’ origin suggested by William Milliken, and a comparison with the Francesco did Giorgio wood group of St. Christopher in the Louvre. He comes to the conclusion, however, that other replicas perhaps represent the work of a Venetian Workshop of the mid-16th century. Other examples are in the Muse Jacque mart-Andre, Paris, and in New York, formerly in the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan.
A FRENCH BRONZE FIGURE OF A WARRIOR, the youth draws his sword from its scabbard and walks forward looking to the left; traces of black lacquer on brown patina, early 17th century, on rectangular wood pedestal base.
The model for this bronze forms part of a group which includes a man standing on his hands, of which there are many cases, and a rarer group of a man carrying a child (an example in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California). These bronzes were formerly attributed by Bode to Domenico Poggini on the basis of comparison with his figure of Pluto in the Studio Francesco I, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Both Walk, Catalogue of Sculpture in the Huntington Collection, 1959 and Weihrauch, Europaisches Bronzestatuetten, suggest a Netherlandish sculptor of the early 17th Century, the latter naming him as the Meister der Genrefiguren. Bertrand Jestaz, who noted the inclusion of the female nude seated figures.
Weihrauch to the Meister der Genrefiguren, in the Inventory of Andre le Nostre after his death in 1700, therefore suggested a French or Franco-Flemish origin sure les Bronzes, II, Renaissance et Baroque’), Revue de L’Art, Finally, Anthony Radcliffe in his catalogue of bronzes from the Rogers and Cotton Bequest, in the City Museum and Art Gallery, Plymouth, notes the presence also of the walking man with a child and the acrobat in the Inventory of Le Nostre and attributes these bronzes to the French School of the early 17th century.
Other examples of the executioner are in Oberlin College, Ohio, and the Radishes Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe: see also Wixom, Renaissance Bronzes from Ohio Private Collections.
A BRONZE GROUP OF A TRITON BLOWING A TRUMPET, the naked youth seated on the crossed tails of three dolphins, the heads of which rest on a scallop shell at the base, black lacquer over red brown patina, 17in. (43cm.) Florentine, Workshops of Giambologna, late 16th Century, on 17th Century ebonised pedestal inlaid with red tortoiseshell.
Three other examples are known of this model of these proportions: one in the Louvre, in which the dophins are placed slightly differently; another in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna and another in the Frick Collection. This model was formerly attributed to Battista Lorenzi, on account of analogies with the marble triton, seated on three dolphins, in the museum at Palermo said to have been carved by Lorenzi on the commission of Cosimo I di Medici. However, an earlier suggestion by Wiles, ‘The Fountains of Florentine Sculptors and their followers, from Donatello to Bernini’, Cambridge (Mass.), 1933, that Giambologna might have been the author of these three bronzes where a previously unpublished document is cited, which states that in 1598 Giambologna cast a fountain figure of a triton which was sent by Ferdinando I de Medici to France. This document had been referred to, but not published, by Desjardins, ‘La Vie et L’Oeuvre de Jean Bologne’, Paris, 1883.
The Giambologna Catalogue states that the three small bronzes must derive from a model by Giambologna, probably that bronze of a triton, a medium sized cast (91.5cm. high), in the Metropolitan Museum in New York . It seems likely that Battista Lorenzi also got his idea for the marble triton in Palermo from the New York bronze. A plaster cast of the New York model is shown in a drawing of 1779 by E. F. Burney in the Royal Academy and was there described as: ‘Triton, the sea-god, a small statue by Giambologna, probably made to decorate some piece of water in some garden’. This attribution is further substantiated by comparison with a triton by Giambologna which appears in the relief of the Triumph of Neptune on the plinth of the Fountain of Oceans in the Boboli Gardens. It is interesting to note that the original model for the triton was probably designed at the same time as the Flying Mercury in the early 1560s.
AN ITALIAN BRONZE GROUP of the Flagellation, the central figure of Christ standing bound to a column, leaning forward to Dexter, the tormentor to His right with his right fist raised above bias head and the left across his body, the other to His left about to execute a blow with the flails in his right hand, black lacquer over brown patina, Rome, 17 the Century, wooden column and rectangular base original.
There are also three complete silver groups and a single figure of Christ in the Metrolopitan Museum, New York. The group in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna was first attributed to Algardi in 1750; (see Schlosser, Werke der Kleinplastik, and XLIII). Others attribute the central figure of Christ to du Quesnoy. The designs of the figures of the tormentors though tend to be attributed either to du Quesnoy or Algardi.
Two VENETIAN BRONZE INKWELLS of triangular form, supported! by recumbent lions with gadrooned border s, the sides of one with the arms of Tar cento of Udine, interspersed with masks, the lids surmounted by applied eagles with wings displayed, black patina 16thCentury.
A PAIR OF VENETIAN BRONZE HEADS OF SATYRS, formerly door handles, their heads turned tightly to the left, tongues protruding, 16th Century, black lacquer on dark brown patina, on pink granite circular bases.
A PADUAN BRONZE INKSTAND, of triangular shape, the lid cast with foliage and a pineapple finial, the sides cast with three similar friezes of putty playing, Standing on winged paw feet, black lacquer over dark brown patina, late early 16th Century, lid possibly replaced.
Two other examples of this inkstand are recorded, one of them in the former Pierpont Morgan Collection and the other in Berlin; they all show the same frieze depicting two putty frightening another putt with a bearded mask while on the right are two further putty, one holding a vase and the other playing a flute. This frieze exists in the Kress Collection and has been studied by John Pope Hennessy. Sir John Pope Hennessy believes they are conclusive because the genesis of the motif of putty is classical and therefore no significance attaches to the fact that it can be found on the Rocco’s Delia Torre monument in the Louvre.
A VENETIAN BRONZE INKWELL in the shape of a vase cast with grotesque masks, resting on three paw feet headed by winged cherubs; the lid cast with a seated cherub holding a sheaf (?); black lacquer over a dark brown patina, 4in. (10cm.) late 16th century.
AN ITALIAN BRONZE FIGURE OF DAVID, after Michelangelo, the young hero standing next to a tree trunk, 16th century, on later sole.
A VENETIAN BRONZE FIGURE OF HERCULES dressed in the Nemea lion’s skin with left hand on his hip, black patina, 8in. high (20.5cm.) late 16th century, right arm missing, on a baroque acanthus scrolling bronze base.
A PADUAN BRONZE HEAD OF THE DEVIL, perhaps a door handle, looking to the left, the neck surrounded by intertwined branches of ivy, black lacquer, 4in. wide (10cm.) 16th Century, on a slab of serpentine marble.
A NETHERLANDISH BRONZED LEAD STALLION, inspired by the horses of Giambologna, shown advancing forward with pricked ears and off-foreleg rose, circa 1600.
A BRONZE FIGURE OF DIANA, shown looking to her left with left arm raised, circa 1600, possibly French, on wood base.
A NORTH ITALIAN BRONZE FIGURE of a peasant resting on his staff, after Giovanni da Bologna, the youth with feet crossed, his weight resting on his right foot, wearing a broad brimmed hat, his pack on his back and a barrel hanging from the post, the lacquer worn off to reveal a green patina.
See Giambologna, exhibition catalogue. The earliest reference to this model is in a document of 1601 recording the fact that four silver statuettes, not necessarily of recent authorship, which had been in the Galleria of the Uffizi, were sent out on loan to Antonio, presumably to serve as models for reproduction in bronze’.
A FINE DUTCH BRONZE FIGURE of Hercules Pomarius, attributed to Wilhelm van Tetrode, the hero represented as a male nude standing with spread legs, a club in his right hand, the left behind the back holding the apples of the Hesperides, his head slightly inclined and turned to sinister, dark brown patina over gold coloured bronze, first quarter 17th century, old repair to right leg, on black marble base.
Anthony Radcliffe attributes the Hercules Pomarius to Willem Danielsz. van Tetrode, in Italy called Guglielmo Fiammingo (working between 1549 and 1575), in his entry in the Giambologna Exhibition Catalogue, Vienna, 1978/79, concerning the Hercules and Anthems group. Tetrad was first recorded when he worked under the name of Guglielmo Fiammingo as an apprentice for Benvenuto Cellini in 1549; he later worked in Rome in the workshop of Gugliemo della Porta and for the Count of Pitigliano. From 1562 on he was in the employment of Cosimo I in Florence, but he must have been in Delft in 1568 to deliver a new high altar for the Oude Kerk. The last time he was mentioned as working in Cologne in 1574/75. The Hercules Pomarius appears already in 1624 in the inventory of the Delft goldsmith, Thomas Cruse, next to other works by Tetrode as ‘form van den gratin Hercules van W. Tetero’. Sources for the Hercules are probably the engravings of the ‘Colossus of Rhodos’ by Heemskerk and of the ‘Farnese Hercules’ by Goltzius; Leeuwenberg and Halsema-Kubes found another source in ‘De Grote Hercules’ by Goltzius, where a massively muscled Hercules stands with similarly spread legs; the proof for a possibly regular cooperation between Tetrode and Goltzius is a further engraving by the latter from the year 1587 of a presentation dish designed by Tetrode. Three further examples are known, one formerly in the Rijksmuseum, the others in private collections.
AN ITALO-FLEMISH BRONZE FIGURE of Cupid, inspired by Elias de Witte, called Catt dido, shown running forward drawing his bow, a gilt bronze quiver (cast separately) hanging from a ribbon around his Shoulder and resting on his right hip, circa 1600, marble base.
AN ITALIAN GILT BRONZE CRUCIFIX FIGURE, Christ with His head resting on His right shoulder, crowned with thorns, heavy peritoneum cast with pleat-like folds, right hand damaged.
AN ITALIAN BRONZE FIGURE of St. Matthew, standing, looking downwards to the right, holding an open book at his hip with the left hand, wearing a tunic under a robe falling in broad folds, red brown patina, Rome, late 17th century, finger oh right hand missing, yellow stone base.
AN ITALIAN BRONZE FIGURE of Fortuna, the naked blindfold woman ruining balanced on her right foot, holding in her left hand, dark greenish brown patina, 17th century.
A FLORENTINE BRONZE GROUP of the Rape of a Sabine, after Giambologna, a naked Roman lifting up a struggling naked Sabine, stepping over a fallen adversary at the same time, a shield and a helmet on the base, the Roman with the Sabine cast separately from the fallen man with the base, golden-brown pagination, the middle finger on her right hand missing, on rectangular green and black marble base.
See Giambologna, exhibition catalogue. Similar to the three-figure ‘Rape groups’ in the Bayerische Nationalmuseum, Munich , attributed to Gianfrancesco Susini, and in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (5899), probably from Emperor Rudolph II’s personal collection; both after Giambologna’s celebrated marble group executed in the early 1580s and unveiled in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, on 14th January, 1583.
A FLORENTINE BRONZE FIGURE of a wandering jester, front the Workshops of Orazio Mocchi, posturing with his right hand on his head and his left on his hip, wearing ragged clothes torn at the knees, circa 1600, on white marble base.
A VENETIAN BRONZE FIGURE of Hercules, after Roccatagliata, the muscular naked man standing with his right hand grasping the club propped under his left arm, bearded head turned to the right, with forked tree-trunk support, dark lacquer, traces of light brown patina, 17th Century, drilled holes for fig leaf and in his ears, on cylindrical marble base.
A PAIR OF FLORENTINE BRONZE BUSTS, of Roman Emperors, after the Antique, crowned with laurel leaves, dark brown patina with traces of red lacquer, late 16thlearly 17th century, marble pedestal bases.
A PAIR OF VENETIAN BRONZE PUTTI in the manner of Roccatagliata, seated on stylised dolphins, each with one arm raised and the other grasping the dolphin’s tail, wearing acanthus loin cloths, (13cm.) circa 1600, on green marble bases.
A ROMAN BRONZE BUST of an Emperor, probably Tiberius, facing to front, his tunic fastened on his right shoulder, dark green lacquer over red gold bronze, late 16th century, and bronze sole and wood base.
AN ITALIAN BRONZE LION COUCHANT, formerly a foot of a casket, the beast with head thrown back and punched mane, rich brown patina, 16th Century, Perspex stand.
A GERMAN POLYCHROME PEWTER FIGURE of a Landsknecht, in 16th century costume, the bearded man standing with the thread of a candleholder in his right hand, holding the top of a blank oval shield with scrolled borders with his left, Augsburg or Nuremberg, circa 1600.
AN AUSTRIAN LEAD FIGURE of a young god or hero, probably the model for a fountain-figure, the naked man stepping forward vigorously, a narrow cloth billowing out behind him in a bold curve, a cloud as base and support, Vienna, first half 18th century, right arm bent and distorted, minor damage to cloth.
A FLORENTINE BRONZE FIGURE of a Boar, after the antique, sitting on one haunch with spread forelegs, turning his head to the right, showing the tusks with slightly opened mouth, coat and features finely modelled, early 18th century, on red marble sole.
A ROMAN BRONZE GROUP, after the antique, of two greyhounds playing, early 18th century.
The original marble of this subject is in the Vatican Museum.
A BRONZE FIGURE OF A FAUN WITH A KID, after the antique, shown striding forward wearing a wreath of leaves in his hair, with the kid slung over his Shoulders, early 18th century, French, on black marble base.
See Haskell and Penny, Taste and the Antique, for the original marble.
A BRONZE GROUP, after the antique, of a satyr carrying the child Dionysus on his Shoulders, high (42cm.) circa 1800.