AFTER A MODEL ATTRIBUTED TO FRANCESCO FANELLI, 17TH OR EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

A BRONZE GROUP OF VENUS AND CUPID
AFTER A MODEL ATTRIBUTED TO FRANCESCO FANELLI, 17TH OR EARLY 18TH CENTURY
Each figure depicted sitting on a dolphin; on an integrally cast rectangular plinth with the collector's mark to the front 'B M' and inscribed in red to the reverse with the inventory number '289'; on a later spreading rectangular ebony base; medium brown patina with greenish brown high points
3½ in. (8.9 cm.) high; 5 3/8 in. (13.6 cm.) high, overall (2)

Provenance

Baron Boissel de Monville (1763-1832).
Purchased by Alfred Beit (1853-1906) by 1904.
Thence by descent to Lady (Clementine) Beit (1915-2005) by whom donated to the Alfred Beit Foundation in 2005.

Literature

W. Bode, The Art Collection of Mr. Alfred Beit at His Residence 26 Park Lane London, Berlin, 1904, 'Unknown Italian artist of the 16th or 17th century'.
W. Bode, Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures and Bronzes in the Possession of Mr. Otto Beit, London, 1913, p. 117, no. 289, as 'Italian (probably Florentine)'.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. Pope-Hennessy, 'Some Bronze Statuettes by Francesco Fanelli', reprinted in Essays on Italian Sculpture, New York and London, 1968, pp. 166-171.
P. Wengraf, 'Francesco Fanelli & Sons in Italy and London, on a Grander Scale', in European Bronzes from the Quentin Collection, New York, 2004, pp. 30-53.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This bronze group, depicting the goddess of love and fertility with her son Cupid, is a small variant example of a composition that has been attributed to Francesco Fanelli, court sculptor to Charles I of England, on the basis of an engraving of a Fanelli fountain group which reproduces this composition (reproduced in Wengraf, op. cit., fig. 8). Another example, exhibiting a similar waxy treatment to the surface, was published by Hans Weihrauch in 1967 (Europäische Bronzestatuetten 15.-18. Jahrhundert, Brunswick, 1967,p. 188, fig. 230) attributed to Giovanni Bandini.

Interestingly, the museum in Berlin purchased another example of this model, placed on a pedestal which is also represented in the Beit collection as lot 157.

For a general discussion of Fanelli's work in the Beit collection, see the pre-lot text to lot 172.

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