WORKSHOP OF GIROLAMO CAMPAGNA (1550-AFTER 1623), EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details

A PAIR OF BRONZE FIGURES OF VENUS AND ADONIS
WORKSHOP OF GIROLAMO CAMPAGNA (1550-AFTER 1623), EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Each on an integrally cast circular plinth and a later ebonised circular wooden socle.
Medium brown patina; casting flaws; each figure formerly holding an attribute, now lacking; cracks and losses to socles.
20½ and 21 7/8 in. (54 and 55.5 cm.) high (2)

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. Balogh, Katalog der ausländischen Bildwerke des Museums der bildenden Künste in Budapest, Budapest, 1975, pp. 170-1, nos. 224-5, pls. 272-3.
H. R. Weihrauch, Europäische Bronzestatuetten 15. - 18. Jahrhundert, Braunschweig, 1967, pp. 158-9, note 213.

Lot Essay

This pair of figures, of which a number of versions are known (Balogh, loc. cit., for a list), has been variously attributed to Girolamo Campagna and Tiziano Aspetti, both of whom were active in Venice in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. However, since a pair signed 'ICF' (standing for 'IERONIMUS CAMPAGNA FECIT') was at the Heim Gallery in 1966, there seems no reason to doubt the attribution to Campagna. As Weihrauch pointed out (loc. cit.), these two figures, which must originally have crowned a pair of andirons, represent Venus with Cupid and Adonis, and not Atalanta and Meleager, as was previously supposed.

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