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Lot Essay
The subject of the bronze offered here depicts the abduction of Deianira, the wife of Hercules, by the centaur Nessus, as recounted in Book IX of Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Hercules and Deianira needed to cross the river Euenos and Nessus offered to ferry Deianira while Hercules swam. However, when Hercules reached the far bank, Nessus attempted to run off with Deianira, only to be shot with an arrow by Hercules for his treachery. The irony was that Nessus ultimately got his revenge: he persuaded Deianira to keep a sample of his blood to use as a love potion. When she later applied it to Hercules’ shirt, it consumed the hero’s skin with a mysterious fire and he threw himself on a funeral pyre. Distraught, Deianira then took her own life.
The subject was a rare one in art until Giambologna’s masterful creation. Giambologna, a native of Boulogne (from which his Italian name was ultimately derived) travelled to Italy and eventually became court sculptor to the Medici Grand Dukes in Florence. Because his patrons sent the sculptor’s bronzes as diplomatic gifts to courts across Europe, his artistic legacy was profound and enduring.
Giambologna’s celebrity came, not least, because of his compositional brilliance. While his contemporaries were often constricted by tradition and narrative, Giambologna was famously more interested in the way in which his sculptures interacted with space than with the story he was telling. As detailed in the exhibition catalogue noted above, the earliest references to Giambologna’s group of Nessus and Deianira comes from archival sources in the papers of the Salviati family – early patrons of the sculptor. A letter of 30 April 1577 records payment by the family to Giambologna for a bronze centaur, and in an inventory of 1609 which lists the inheritance of Lorenzo Salviati, the bronze is more specifically described as ‘Un centauro di bronzo con una femmina addosso, di mano di Gio. Bologna…’ (‘A bronze centaur with a woman on his back, by the hand of Giambologna…’; quoted in Avery and Radcliffe, op. cit., p. 109).
Today there are known to exist at least three major types of the theme, first designated in the Giambologna exhibition of 1978 (op. cit) as Types A, B and C, with variants within each type. Type A is generally thought to be the earliest and depicts Deianira seated on the centaur’s back and held largely by a swathe of drapery wrapped around her. A signed version of this composition is in the Huntington Museum, San Marino, California. Type B, of which the bronze offered here is an example, appears to represent an evolution of the composition and is a more dramatic invention. In this model, Deianira wedges her left foot beneath her and attempts to lift herself from Nessus’ back. The centaur also grabs her more firmly with both hands. Type C largely follows Type B but is on a larger scale.
Despite being the later invention, examples of Type B are rarer than Type A. Other known examples include an example in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (formerly the Robert H. Smith collection, inv. no. 2022.181.26) and the collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein, Vienna (inv. no. SK 914). The sculptor François Girardon – himself a great collector – is also known to have owned a cast, said to have been from the hand of Susini (see Warren, loc. cit.).
The present lot has a modern provenance from Lorenzo Niccolini, 13th Marchese di Ponsacco e Camugliano. It is highly likely that it descended to him from a prominent Florentine ancestor, Giovanni di Agnolo Niccolini (1544-1611) who was from a family of important supporters of the Medici. Like many members of the Florentine elite, the family’s origins were originally commercial, but in the course of the 16th century there was an ‘aristocratisation’ of many of these families who perceived that the appreciation of art and the creation of a collection would help establish their new credentials. Niccolini was recognised as an important collector and it seems probable that he was the original purchaser of this bronze.
Discussions of art history and provenance aside, as an object the bronze remains a testament to the tradition of innovative and technically high quality bronzes established in Florence, particularly under the aegis of Giambologna. With its heightened sense of drama and its wonderfully chiselled details, the bronze offered here is a masterpiece of Florentine sculpture from the very early 17th century.
The subject was a rare one in art until Giambologna’s masterful creation. Giambologna, a native of Boulogne (from which his Italian name was ultimately derived) travelled to Italy and eventually became court sculptor to the Medici Grand Dukes in Florence. Because his patrons sent the sculptor’s bronzes as diplomatic gifts to courts across Europe, his artistic legacy was profound and enduring.
Giambologna’s celebrity came, not least, because of his compositional brilliance. While his contemporaries were often constricted by tradition and narrative, Giambologna was famously more interested in the way in which his sculptures interacted with space than with the story he was telling. As detailed in the exhibition catalogue noted above, the earliest references to Giambologna’s group of Nessus and Deianira comes from archival sources in the papers of the Salviati family – early patrons of the sculptor. A letter of 30 April 1577 records payment by the family to Giambologna for a bronze centaur, and in an inventory of 1609 which lists the inheritance of Lorenzo Salviati, the bronze is more specifically described as ‘Un centauro di bronzo con una femmina addosso, di mano di Gio. Bologna…’ (‘A bronze centaur with a woman on his back, by the hand of Giambologna…’; quoted in Avery and Radcliffe, op. cit., p. 109).
Today there are known to exist at least three major types of the theme, first designated in the Giambologna exhibition of 1978 (op. cit) as Types A, B and C, with variants within each type. Type A is generally thought to be the earliest and depicts Deianira seated on the centaur’s back and held largely by a swathe of drapery wrapped around her. A signed version of this composition is in the Huntington Museum, San Marino, California. Type B, of which the bronze offered here is an example, appears to represent an evolution of the composition and is a more dramatic invention. In this model, Deianira wedges her left foot beneath her and attempts to lift herself from Nessus’ back. The centaur also grabs her more firmly with both hands. Type C largely follows Type B but is on a larger scale.
Despite being the later invention, examples of Type B are rarer than Type A. Other known examples include an example in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (formerly the Robert H. Smith collection, inv. no. 2022.181.26) and the collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein, Vienna (inv. no. SK 914). The sculptor François Girardon – himself a great collector – is also known to have owned a cast, said to have been from the hand of Susini (see Warren, loc. cit.).
The present lot has a modern provenance from Lorenzo Niccolini, 13th Marchese di Ponsacco e Camugliano. It is highly likely that it descended to him from a prominent Florentine ancestor, Giovanni di Agnolo Niccolini (1544-1611) who was from a family of important supporters of the Medici. Like many members of the Florentine elite, the family’s origins were originally commercial, but in the course of the 16th century there was an ‘aristocratisation’ of many of these families who perceived that the appreciation of art and the creation of a collection would help establish their new credentials. Niccolini was recognised as an important collector and it seems probable that he was the original purchaser of this bronze.
Discussions of art history and provenance aside, as an object the bronze remains a testament to the tradition of innovative and technically high quality bronzes established in Florence, particularly under the aegis of Giambologna. With its heightened sense of drama and its wonderfully chiselled details, the bronze offered here is a masterpiece of Florentine sculpture from the very early 17th century.