FINE ART LIMITED London
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For Victor & Inès.
EUROPEAN SCULPTURE June 2013
BENJAMIN PROUST FINE ART LIMITED 43-44 New Bond Street W1S-2SA London
Nanni di Bartolo Head of a Young Man C ir c a 1 4 3 0
Fig. 4
Nanni di Bartolo Active 1419-1435
Head of a Young Man Circa 1430 Istrian stone Height: 35,5 cm, width: 18 cm, depth: 24 cm Published: Fig. 1
G. Kreytenberg, “Der kopf eine lächelnden jünglings von Nanni di Bartolo il Rosso”, Studio di Storia dell’Arte, vol. 19, n. 2008, pp. 273-276, illus. 1, 2, 3
Comparative literature: W. Wolters, La scultura veneziana gotica 1300-1461, Venice, 1976 A. Markham Schulz and al., Nanni di Bartolo e il portale di San Nicola a Tolentino, Florence, 1997
Fig. 2
This remarkable head was published in 2008 in an essay by Prof. Dr. Gert Kreytenberg. The scholar has dated it from the years 1423-1437, drawing parallels with works realised by Nanni di Bartolo in the church of San Fermo in Verona in 1426. In particular, similarities in the sculpting of the faces and the wavy strands of hair can be found on the sleeping soldiers featuring on the tomb of Niccolò di Franceschino Brenzoni (see lit., Wolters, illus. 753)(Fig.1). Further comparisons can be drawn with the facial features of the three gargoyles that Nanni di Bartolo realised on the northern façade of San Marco in Venice circa 1423-1424 (see Wolters, illus. 635)(Fig.2) as well as the figures sculpted on the relief of the Baptism of Christ in the lunette above the tomb of the Blessed Pacifico in Santa Maria dei Frari in Venice, which are datable from about 1437 (see Wolters, illus. 755 and 756)(Fig.3). The head is carved at the back with a leafy motif. The sculpture therefore must have been surrounded by decorative foliage, remnants of which also appear below the figure’s neck. The decorative scheme might have been visible from the back, as is the case for some sculpted ornamentation featuring on the upper register of San Marco’s western façade (see Wolters, illus. 646-647)(Fig.4). Nanni di Bartolo trained and worked in Florence where he collaborated with Donatello in 1421-1422. He is documented in Venice and Verona in the following years but little is known about his life.
Fig. 3
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PADUA Antinous Fir st H alf of 1 6 t h C e n t u ry
Bronze Height: 24,6 cm, Width: 9,4 cm, Depth: 5cm This bronze is characteristic of a taste for statuettes emulating antique Roman sculpture that developed in Renaissance Italy around 1500. Illustrations of pagan or classical subjects were made for the delight of connoisseurs who were also avidly collecting antique sculpture. Padua, the seat of an important university, saw the flowering of a humanist culture and was an important artistic centre where many sculptors and bronze founders were active. The left hand placed on the hip of the present figure recalls ancient prototypes and identifies him as Antinous, the beloved companion of the Roman emperor Hadrian who was deified after his death in 130. The beautiful youth is shown with a chlamys thrown over his shoulder and the weight of his body placed on one leg. Hollowed at the back, the bronze would have been part of a decorative scheme, maybe affixed to a larger object or piece of furniture.
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SIMONE BIANCO Profile of Faustina the Elder Cir c a 1 5 3 5
Fig 4 : Bust of a woman, Statens Museum Copenhagen Inv.KMS5516
SIMONE BIANCO Loro Ciuffenna, before 1512 - Venice, after 1553
Profile of Faustina the Elder Circa 1535 Marble relief Height: 21.6 cm, Width: 14,3 cm, Depth: 4 cm Related Literature: M. Michiel, Notizia d’opere di disegno nella prima metà del secolo XVI, MS, 1521-48, ed. J. Morelli, Bassano, 1800, rev. Bologna, 1884 P. Arentino, Lettere sull’arte di Pietro Arentino, 1609, ed. F. Pertile, E. Camesasca, vol. 1, Milan, 1957-9, p. 120, no. 76 L. Planiscig, “Simone Bianco”, Belvedere, v, 1924, pp. 157-63 P. Meller, “Marmi e bronzi di Simone Bianco”, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, vol. 21, no. 2, 1977, pp. 199–210. T. Martin, ‘Michelangelo’s “Brutus” and the Classicizing Portrait Bust in Sixteenth-Century Italy’, Artibus et Historiae, vol. 14, no. 27, 1993, pp. 67-83 A. Luchs, Tullio Lombardo and Ideal Portrait Sculpture in Renaissance Venice, Cambridge, 1995 M. Schulz, “Simone Bianco”, Saur 10, 1995, pp. 445-7 A. Luchs, Tullio Lombardo and Venetian High Renaissance Sculpture, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, New Haven/London, 2009, p. 64, fig.
Portraits by the Venetian Renaissance sculptor Simone Bianco are not mere imitations of the antique, they are ingenious adaptations. Instead of slavishly copying ancient models, Bianco brought a humanist sensibility to his interpretations of Roman portraiture. The present Profile Relief of Faustina the Elder displays the characteristic hallmarks of Simone Bianco’s portraits of women: an ancient-inspired subject, exquisite modelling, elaborately arranged coiffure and, most importantly, a conspicuous Renaissance modernity. The first mention of Simone Bianco’s portrait marbles demonstrates that his skills were already recognized far beyond the city of Venice. The French King, Francis I (1494-1547), commissioned Simone Bianco three marble portrait busts after the antique (Louvre, Paris and Château de Compiègne). A letter of 25 June 1538 from the author Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) to the sculptor makes reference to the commission, which is also mentioned by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects of 1550. In further correspondence with the artist in 1548, Aretino praises Bianco’s bust of the wife of Nicolò Molino, the Venetian ambassador to the court of James I. Aretino explains that the bust delighted not only him, but also the artists Titian (1488-76) and Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570). While Bianco is known for having skilfully portrayed figures from the Classical world as well as some of his contemporaries, the number of busts attributed to him remains small. Two marble busts, each representing a young woman, were recently rediscovered in the stores of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and attributed to the artist. • 19
Renaissance Venice saw a revival of antiquity and humanist ideals that became manifest in the city’s literature and art. The marbles of Bianco’s predecessor, the great Venetian sculptor Tullio Lombardo (1460-1532), aimed to challenge ancient sculpture. Bianco instead modelled sculptures that appealed to contemporary collectors and their taste for all’antica portraits: his refined imagery resulted from a synthesis between classicizing aesthetics and elements the artist had absorbed from Venetian 16th- century portrait paintings.
Fig 1 : Diva Faustina Coin, Circa 141 AD
Fig 2 : Colossal bust of Faustina (Round Room, Vatican Museum)
Fig 3 : Titian, Portrait of a Lady “La Schiavona”, Circa 1510-12. (National Gallery of Art, London)
The subject of the present profile relief is immediately recognizable as Faustina Major (the Elder) by her coiffure, which distinguished her in official imperial Roman portrait sculpture and on coins (Fig 1). Her hairstyle is a more intricate version of the so-called classical melon coiffure. It can be identified by its strands of wavy hair gathered in separate plaits pulled together into a bun on top of her head and held together with a string of pearls. Faustina the Elder was married to the Emperor Antoninus Pius; together they had four children and ruled Rome during a time of peace and prosperity. She was celebrated for her beauty, charity work and wisdom. Upon her death in 141 AD, the Emperor was bereft. He had her deified as a goddess and in her honor stuck millions of coins that bear her imperial portrait in profile and are inscribed DIVA FAVSTINA. The coins as well as Roman portrait sculptures (Fig 2) clearly served as the model for the present relief. Simone Bianco’s earliest signed bust of a young woman is in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin. It is one of the sculptor’s early, less-classicizing works inspired by Tullio Lombardo as well as contemporary visual sources. Alison Luchs has highlighted the similarities between the Berlin bust and the naturalism of Venetian portrait painting from the first quarter of the sixteenth century. In particular, she cites the compelling parallels found between the bust and Titian’s Flora (circa 1515/1520, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence). Titian captured the link between marble sculpture inspired by Antiquity and painted portraits in his Portrait of a Lady “La Schiavona” of circa 1510-12. (National Gallery of Art, London) (Fig 3). Although the present sculpture is stylistically close in its form and naturalism to the Berlin bust, it follows a more rigorously classical formula adapted from Imperial portraiture, which is found in Bianco’s later works. As such, it can be assumed that the profile relief is closer in date to those works. The present marble can also be compared to a remarkable relief signed by the artist and featuring the bust of Christ in profile (Schönborn Collection, Pommersfleden). As his career progressed, Simone Bianco became increasingly influenced by Sansovino (1486-1570) and worked on classically inspired heads. The most striking comparison for the present Relief is with the Bust of a Woman in the Statens Museum in Copenhagen (Fig 4), which is dated to this second phase of his career. Aside from obvious stylistic similarities in the facial features and painstakingly rendered hairstyles that include a fine hairline visible under the braids, both portraits are infused with a humanistic dignity and grandeur. Bianco has distinguished his Profile Relief of Faustina the Elder from imperial portraits of Faustina by imprinting his own artistic sensibility into the sculpture. It is a marriage of the expressiveness of Titian and the disciplined classicism of Sansovino. Simone Bianco’s legacy is evidenced by the persistence of a taste for all’antica portrait busts in Venice, a mode that he himself defined. Although Bianco had many followers, none achieved the pathos and beauty of his sculptures. • 21
Terracotta Height: 35 cm, Width: 33 cm, Depth: 6 cm
LOMBARDY Dormit ion of The Virgin Se cond Half of 1 6 t h Ce n t u ry
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Roman school Designs of c apitals, Recto-Verso Early 1 7 t h C e n t u ry
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Brown ink on paper 21,8 x 35 cm Provenance : Cassiano dal Pozzo’s Museo Cartaceo, Rome, by descent to his brother Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo, by descent to his son Gabriele dal Pozzo, by descent to his son Cosimo Antonio dal Pozzo, by whom sold in 1703 to Pope Clement XI, by descent to Cardinal Alessandro Albani, from whom acquired by King George III in 1762. Richard Dalton, John MacGowan, Charles Townley, William Stirling Maxwell. Sale, London, Philips, 12 December 1990
Related bibliography : The paper museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657), exh. cat., British Museum, London, 1993 The fascinating provenance of this drawing can be traced back to Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1675) and his Museo Cartaceo, one of the most celebrated collections of the 17th century. It counted more than 7,000 watercolours, drawings and prints documenting classical antiquities and architecture as well as botany, zoology and geology. This captivating visual encyclopedia reflects the remarkable taste and intellectual concerns of its patron who was secretary to Cardinal Franceso Barberini and friend to Galileo. Today the ensemble is dispersed between the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, the British Library, the British Museum and various other public and private collections. The Museo Cartaceo was sold by Cassiano’s heirs to Pope Clement XI Albani in the early 18th century. In 1762 it was acquired by George III for his library at Buckingham house. Volumes were then dismembered by the king’s librarian Richard Dalton and split according to subject matter. Dalton extracted and kept a large number of sheets from the Bassi Rilievi group, from which the present sheet originated. Among various subjects, Cassiano commissioned several artists to draw the remains of ancient buildings in Rome and the surrounding countryside, as well as more recent designs for architectural fitments and decorative schemes.
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NICOLAS CHAPERON Crucifixion Cir c a 1 6 5 0
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NICOLAS CHAPERON Châteaudun 1612 - Paris 1654/1655
Crucifixion Circa 1650 Oil on canvas 53,2 x 45 cm Provenance: Unknown red wax collection seal on the stretcher (T.P.F.) French private collection
Literature: Nicolas Chaperon, Du graveur au peintre retrouvé, exh. cat. by S. Laveissière, D. Jacquot, G. Kazerouni, Nimes Musées/Actes Sud, 1999
The present painting seems to date from the Roman period of the artist’s career, which spanned the years 1642 to 1654. For his composition Chaperon found inspiration in antique sculpture he could see in Rome. The kneeling figure in the foreground to the left is a faithful adaptation of the Belvedere Torso. A similar seated bacchant appears on the foreground of The Nurture of Jupiter, a painting by Chaperon dating from circa 1650 (Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina). The figure clad in a lapis lazuli blue tunic and the Roman centurion whose mount he is holding the reins of also clearly recall the composition of the Dioscuri on the Quirinale. In order to enrich the colour range of his composition dominated by a palette of browns and deep greys, Chaperon makes abundant use of fabrics that bring magnificent touches of warm tones of lapis lazuli, pink and coral.
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Gerard van Opstal Bacchanal of Children Mid 1 7 t h c e n t u ry
Ivory relief on black velvet, in an ebony frame 18,8 x 34,2 cm overall Related literature: Ph. Malgouyres, “La collection d’ivoires de Louis XIV: l’acquisition du fonds d’atelier de Gérard van Opstal”, La Revue du Louvre, n°5, December 2007, pp. 46 à 54 This relief full of charm shows an animated frieze of four putti playing with a goat. Their delicately rendered plump bodies and windswept hair are typical of Gérard van Opstal. The Flemish sculptor moved to Paris in 1642 and worked on the decorations of the Louvre and the Tuileries palaces, as well as in the Hôtel Lambert and Hôtel Carnavalet. He is best known for the reliefs he finely sculpted in ivory and which were much appreciated by his contemporaries. They recall the lively scenes of revelry found in Rubens’ mythological paintings. Ivory reliefs by van Opstal featured in the collection of Louis XIV; interestingly we know thanks to inventories that several of them were placed on black velvet and framed with ebony. This mode of placing carved ivory against a background of black velvet was original to the artist. Related reliefs featuring bacchic scenes with putti playing with a goat can be seen in the Louvre museum in Paris, in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and in the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna.
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ITALY or FRANCE Queen Dido of Carthage Mid 1 7 t h c e n t u ry
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Bronze Height: 28 cm, width: 10 cm, depth: 12 cm With its fine detailing and rich patina, this refined bronze is characteristic of a taste for the representation of heroines of Antiquity that developed during the mannerist period. Popular themes in sculpture as well as paintings and engravings included Dido, Lucrecia and Cleopatra. The character’ single attribute, a sword or dagger, indicates the subject of this bronze is Dido, the legendary founder and first queen of Carthage. According to Virgil, she fell in love with Aeneas and when the Trojan hero left her she ran his sword through her heart. The present statuette shares similarities in style and subject with another bronze of a nude female figure depicted in a vigorous circular movement and running a dagger through her bosom. Known in two versions (Victoria & Albert Museum, London and Metropolitan Museum, New York), that model is also characterised by a small head with distinctive features and a soft and fluent modelling but it differs from the present bronze in some aspects of the composition, including a billowing scarf held in one hand by Dido. The model for that group, which used to be ascribed to an anonymous Flemish artist working in mid-17th century Rome under the influence of Bernini, has been attributed to Ferdinando Tacca (1619-1686) on stylistic grounds. This attribution, which is not supported by any documentary evidence, has not been universally accepted. The present bronze is a heavy cast, which might indicate a French origin.
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Lorenzo Vaccaro Equestri an Portrait of King Phi lip V of Spain Cir c a 1 7 0 2 - 1 7 0 5
Lorenzo Vaccaro Naples, 1655 - Torre del Greco, 1706
Equestrian portrait of King Philip V of Spain Circa 1702 - 1705 Bronze Height: 67.6 cm (94 cm with the base), Width: 56cm, Depth: 25 cm Provenance: Collection of Mrs Elias-Vaes, Amsterdam with Fritzen, Drunen, the Netherlands; from whom acquired in 1998 or 1999
Comparative literature: A. Colombo, “La statua equestre di Filippo V al largo del Gesù”, Napoli Nobilissima, IX, 1900 Y. Bottineau, L’art de cour dans l’Espagne de Philippe V. 1700-1746, 1993, pp. 259-260 R. Coppel Aréizaga, Catálogo de la Escultura de Epoca Moderna, Madrid, 1998, pp. 154-157, n. 54 and 55 El real sitio de la Granja de San Ildefonso retrato y escena del rey, exh. cat., La Granja de San Ildefonso, Segovia, June - September 2000, n. 1.4 Brillos en bronce. Collecciones de reyes, exh. cat, Madrid, Palacio Real, November 2009 - January 2010, n. 34, pp. 180-181, entry by R. Coppel Beauty and Power. Renaissance and Baroque bronzes from the Peter Marino Collection, exh. cat. by J. Warren, The Wallace Collection, April - July 2010, London, n. 19, pp. 202-215
Lorenzo Vaccaro was primarily a sculptor, but he was also active as an architect and painter and supplied models for silversmiths. He led a successful and varied career in Naples, realising architectural and decorative schemes in many of the city’s churches, such as San Giorgio Maggiore and the Certosa di San Martino. He worked almost exclusively on ecclesiastical projects, creating statues of saints, portraits and funerary monuments, but he also occasionally took on non-religious commissions. The present equestrian portrait is a model for the most important and ambitious of them. On the strength of his acclaimed silver altarpiece in Santa Maria la Nova (1689), Vaccaro won a commission for sculptures of the Four Parts of the World (1692, in the Toledo Cathedral since 1695), which were given to the Spanish king by Francisco de Benavides, then viceroy in Naples. In the wake of this first connection to Spain, Vaccaro executed the high altar in San Giacomo degli Spagnoli, the Spanish church in Naples and, most significantly, he received the commission for a monumental bronze equestrian portrait of Philip V of Spain. Spain ruled the Kingdom of Naples from 1504 until 1707. Philip V (1683-1746), • 41
a grandson of Louis XIV, became king at the age of 19 in 1700 upon the death of Charles II of Spain, who had named him his successor in his will. His reign would be the longest in Spanish history but was marked by the War of the Spanish succession and the loss of the Italian territories. Like Donatello and other Italian Renaissance sculptors, as well as François Girardon a few years before him, Vaccaro drew his inspiration from the ancient statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitol in Rome - the major reference in the field of equestrian portraiture. He depicted Philip V as a Roman emperor wearing a voluminous contemporary curly wig. The king sits astride his mount, with neither saddle nor stirrups, the horse being shown in the passant (walking) position with its right foreleg raised. Sober, calm and monumental, this image of the king is imposing in its classical majesty worthy of Antiquity. Vaccaro executed the model of the statue in the years 1702-1703, at the time of Philip V’s visit to Naples during a seven month-long trip around Italy. The monument was cast by the founder Antoni Perrella and erected in the Piazza del Gesù Nuovo in 1705. Only two years later, the statue would be destroyed by Austrian troops as they entered the city. Lost so rapidly after its completion, Vaccaro’s monument has however survived in three bronze reductions: two in the Prado Museum, Madrid and the present one. The first of the Prado’s bronzes is documented as having been commissioned by the Duke of Popoli to be presented as a gift to the king. It was taken to Spain in July 1705, an episode notable enough to be recorded in a contemporary newspaper . The fact that a bronze reduction of the equestrian portrait was immediately commissioned by a patron close to the king is a sign that the sculpture had been deemed a great success. A reminder and symbol of the importance of the king’s Italian sojourn, the sculpture was placed in the palace in Madrid and features in an inventory of the Royal collection drawn up prior to 1734. The bronze is mounted on an elaborate base with a lengthy dedicatory inscription to King Philip V. The second bronze in the Prado collection presents slight differences in details as well as a less fine finish. Lacking an early provenance, it is first listed in an inventory of Fernando VII’s possessions dating from 1834. The two versions in the Prado differ, the Popoli bronze being much more finely worked than the other one, which appears to be a secondary version likely to have been made at a later date (see lit, Coppel 1998 and 2010). In addition, these bronzes were made in a different way, the body of the first horse being cast in two halves and that of the second one being cast in one piece. In his collection of biographies on Neapolitan artists, Bernardo De Dominici refers to Lorenzo Vaccaro’s equestrian portrait of Phillip V in Naples and its reduced version. Writing in the years 1742-45 and therefore approximately 40 years after the original commission and Vaccaro’s death, De Dominici mentions that Lorenzo’s son, Domenico Antonio (1678-1745), executed many works with the assistance of his father or after his designs and models. Domenico Antonio’s participation in his father’s enterprises first consisted of his collaboration as a young
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apprentice, then by his completing the commissions left unfinished at the time of his father’s murder in August 1706. Coppel (see lit., 2009) has convincingly argued that the reduced-scale bronze of the equestrian monument was realized by Lorenzo Vaccaro himself: given that the Popoli example was executed in Lorenzo’s lifetime and that it was an important commission intended as a gift to the king, Lorenzo would have made it himself rather than delegating the job to his son, who was still young. The present bronze displays strong similarities with the Popoli version in the Prado; its surface has been meticulously worked and the horse has been cast in two halves. The entire surface of the metal has been enlivened with short incised lines. Chasing and punching on the horse’s coat and the king’s elaborate costume suggest textures and catch the light in subtle ways. This virtuoso treatment of the bronze recalls a magnificent pair of vases with stories from Roman history recently attributed to Lorenzo Vaccaro, which also display a fastidious attention to detail and sophisticated decorative elements (Peter Marino’s collection).
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DOMENICO PARODI Triton Cir c a 1 7 1 5
DOMENICO PARODI Genoa, 1672 - 1742
Triton Circa 1715 Terracotta Height: 64.3 cm, Width: 32 cm, Depth: 19 cm
Provenance: Private collection, Genoa.
Comparative literature: Elena Parma Armani, Maria Clelia Galassi, La scultura a Genova e in Liguria, dal seicento al primo novecento, Volume II, Cassa di Risparmio di Genova e Imperia, 1988
This striking group is a rare example of Genoese terracotta sculpture of the 18 th century. The intricate interlacing of the bodies of the snakes is conceived with a precise attention to detail and to variety that makes it powerful and balanced at the same time. The exaggerated grotesque features of the face and hair of the Triton remind the viewer not just of Genoese sculpture but also of decorative arts, and especially of the torcheres with dolphins, Tritons and Nereids that are a typical expression of the taste of the Ligurian city in the 18 th century. Of course, the aesthetic and iconographic origin of a sculpture like this Triton are in Roman Baroque sculpture and especially in the work of Bernini. The celebrated Fountain of the Triton, or that of the Moro, or the Neptune Fountain in Sassuolo (designed by Bernini but carried out by Ercole Antonio Raggi) clearly are the prototypes that influenced at least two generations of sculptors up and down the Italian peninsula. In Genoa, the protagonist of the first generation of Baroque sculptors is Filippo Parodi (1630-1702), who established a school and trained in his workshop many of the sculptors of the next generation, active mostly in the period between 1700 and 1750. Among them, his son Domenico Parodi (1672-1742). Born in Genoa, Domenico worked mostly as a painter, with strong influences from masters as Domenico Piola, but also with a direct knowledge of Roman painting especially through his contacts with Carlo Maratta. Having inherited his father’s workshop, Domenico Parodi dedicated himself to sculpture too, with the collaboration of Francesco Biggi (Genoa,1672-1736). According to the sources, Parodi was designing the sculptures that Biggi would carve in marble. Whilst it cannot be ruled out that Parodi carved marble, it is
documented by his large corpus of drawings that he designed many sculptures, and it is only logical to think that he could also model them in terracotta, given his background and his ability to be a versatile artist.
Fig. 1
Looking at Domenico Parodi’s drawings, we can point out some examples. The project for a fountain with Hercules in the collection of Palazzo Rosso in Genoa is a good comparable, but even more telling is the project for the fountain in the courtyard of the Palazzo Lomellini-Podesta’ in Genoa (Fig. 1: Domenico Parodi, Lomellini-Podesta fountain project, Palazzo Rosso, Genoa). The drawing (from the Palazzo Rosso collection again) shows the fountain as it was before time and the constant falling of water ruined the statues of Phaeton and of the dragon. It also shows the two types of caryatids presented to the patrons, with the one on the left chosen for the monument. The tritons on the Lomellini-Podesta’ fountain (a work that dates to after 1700) show many similarities with the example in terracotta that we are discussing here. Their twisted snake-like tails seem to bear the weight of the arch of the fountain with a supernatural strength. Other analogies between our terracotta and the sculpture of Domenico Parodi can be found. This is the case of the marble Apollo sculpted by the Genoese together with other mythological figures for the Belvedere in Vienna before 1729: the structure of the torso, the position of the head and arms, are almost identical (Fig. 2: Domenico Parodi, Apollon, Belvedere, Vienna). Another comparison that can support the attribution is with the marble Romulus and Remus in Palazzo Rosso in Genoa (Fig.3: Domenico Parodi, Romulus & Remus, Palazzo Rosso, Genoa), where Parodi shows, especially on the wolf ’s coat, an attention to detail and to the continuous and vibrating movement of the surface that the viewer can appreciate also on the Triton. Carlo Milano London, 5 June 2012.
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
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BOURDELLE The Young Sculptor 1908
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Emile-Antoine Bourdelle Montauban 1861 - Le Vésinet 1929
The Young Sculptor 1908 Bronze Height: 29 cm, width: 14 cm, height: 13 cm Signed A BOURDELLE and numbered 2 , with founder’s stamp Alexis RUDIER/ Fondeur PARIS. Bears the dedications A Pierrot/le jeune sculpteur/Emile Antoine Bourdelle and Dédié à la bonne/Fanchon Lifetime cast, conceived in 1908 and cast in an edition of eight. Three related plasters and 3 bronze casts by Rudier are in the collection of the Musée Bourdelle in Paris.
Literature: I. Jianou and M. Dufer, Bourdelle, Paris, 1978, n. 381 and p. 27
The artist’s son Pierre is the subject of this bronze to whom it is dedicated at the front. The statuette shows a young artist sitting at the top of steps, in deep concentration with his work. Bourdelle expressed his love for his son in another work called Pierre Bourdelle as a child. Pierre Bourdelle (1901-1966) became an artist and moved to the USA where he was active as a painter and decorator. Fanchon was the nickname the artist affectionately gave to Pierre’s mother, his wife Stéphanie Van Parys. Emile-Antoine Bourdelle was admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris after having studied at an art school in Toulouse. Two years later however, disappointed in the conservative academic education it provided, he withdrew from the prestigious Parisian institution. He became Rodin’s assistant and remained in his atelier for 15 years. The commencement of his Beethoven series marks the start of Bourdelle’s creative independence. He studied ancient sculpture from the Archaic Greek and medieval periods, developing a powerful and vigorous style of his own. His vision was embodied in works with bold, vivid textures and surfaces. 1908, when The Young Sculptor was created, was a momentous year for Bourdelle: he left Rodin’s studio and started work on what might be described as his most famous sculpture, Hercules the Archer. Showing the mythological figure killing the birds of Lake Stymphalis, the work is full of tension and calculated balance, its pure lines and the hero’s features referencing Greek sculpture. The artist would return time and again to antique subjects, such as Penelope and the Dying Centaur. In the wake of the exhibition of the Hercules at the Salon in 1910 and its resounding acclaim, he received numerous commissions for monumental public sculpture. Bourdelle, whose successful career straddled two centuries, also produced a number of notable portraits and was active as a teacher; Alberto Giacometti was among his pupils. His studio in Paris’ Montparnasse quarter was turned into the Bourdelle Museum by his wife and daughter.
LOUISE BOURGEOIS Two Studies C ir c a 1 9 3 0
Louise Bourgeois (Paris, 1911 – New-York, 2010) Tow Studies, Circa 1930
Charcoal on paper 62,5 x 48 cm Monogrammed lower center: “L.B.” Louise Bourgeois archives n° BOUR-15.363 (Venus) et n° BOUR-15.364 (Antinous) Provenance: Private collection, Paris
RAYMOND GUERRIER Sagesse ( Wisdom ) Cir c a 1 9 6 0
Raymond Guerrier (Paris, 1920 – Eygalières, 2002) Sagesse (Wisdom)
Enamelled terracotta Height: 12 cm, width: 25 cm, depth: 25 cm
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The attributions, classifications and statements in this catalogue are suggestions which accord with the generally accepted opinion of scholars and specialists to the best of our knowledge and belief. I would particularly like to thank the following for their help in preparing this catalogue: Jean-Christophe Baudequin, Alix Janta, Danny Katz, Stuart Lochhead, Sophie Lorent, Carlo Milano, Sophie Richard, Jacques Seguin, Felix Thornton-Jones
Design: Alice Balas Photography: A.C. Cooper Printing: KoolenVanWordragen Š Benjamin Proust Fine Art Limited, 2013
Benjamin Proust Fine Art Limited 43-44 New Bond Street W1S 2SA - London + 44 (0) 207 409 1901 + 44 (0) 7500 804 50 info@benjaminproust.com www.benjaminproust.com