A BRONZE FIGURE OF MORGANTE STANDING AND BLOWING A CORNETTO

AFTER THE MODEL BY GIAMBOLOGNA, (1529-1608) FLORENTINE, 17TH CENTURY

Details

A BRONZE FIGURE OF MORGANTE STANDING AND BLOWING A CORNETTO
AFTER THE MODEL BY GIAMBOLOGNA, (1529-1608) FLORENTINE, 17TH CENTURY
On a later ormolu-mounted porphyry base
4 ¾ in. (12 cm.) high; 6 ¾ in. (17 cm.) high, overall

Provenance

Dr M. Hugo Oelze, Amsterdam.

Literature

Hamburg, Museum für Kunstgewerbe, Sechs Sammler Stellen Aus, 1961, p. 24, no. 51.
M. Schwartz, ed., European Sculpture from the Abbott Guggenheim Collection, New York, 2008, pp. 58-59, no. 23.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
New York, The Frick Collection, European Bronzes from the Quentin Collection, Sept. 28 2004 - Jan. 2 2005, M. Leithe-Jasper and P. Wengraf eds., p. 162-5.

Exhibited

Hamburg, Museum für Kunstgewerbe, Sechs Sammler Stellen Aus, 1961, p. 24, no. 51.
San Francisco, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Abbott Guggenheim Collection, 3 Mar. – 11 Sep. 1988, L. Camins ed., pp. 86-87, no. 29.

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Lot Essay

Beloved court dwarf of the Medici family, Morgante was portrayed time and again by various famed artists, making him one of the best known characters of sixteenth century Italy. Alongside a front and back painting by Bronzino in the Uffizi and a large-scale sculpture at the entrance of the Boboli Gardens by Valerio Cioli, there exist several small-scale bronzes of Morgante originating from the workshop of Giambologna.

Several variants of this model are known, and Leithe-Jasper and Wengraf characterise the present bronze, formerly the property of lawyer and art collector Hugo Oelze, as a Type Bc (Morgante with cornetto and walking stick, lacking the cornetto). While of slightly smaller size, the quality of this cast and the depiction of Morgante make it closest to another version in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

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