.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present oil lamp in the form of a kneeling youth carrying a shell is a rare example of a middle-sized bronze from the early Italian renaissance. It is clearly from the same hand as a pair of kneeling youths, each bearing a candlestick nozzle, in a private UK collection (see Bode, loc. cit.) which, together, may have been created as an ensemble for an erudite patron. Its art historical origin is clearly from the region of north-eastern Italy in the first decades of the 16th century, specifically Venice, Padua and Ferrara. It appears to have been created by someone in the immediate circle of the celebrated sculptor Antonio Lombardo (c. 1458-1516), himself a member of a dynasty of successful sculptors of the period.
Antonio trained in the workshop of his father, Pietro Lombardo (1435-1515), and worked in both bronze and marble. His early career is still subject to discussion but with his first signed and documented work – a marble relief of The Miracle of the Newborn Child in the Chapel of St. Anthony, S. Antonio, Padua – he emerged as a highly accomplished and sought-after sculptor. Executed between 1500 and 1504, the relief established his reputation. Numerous other commissions followed and, in 1506, he would move to Ferrara where he executed a celebrated series of marble reliefs of mythological scenes for the palace of Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. He died in Ferrara in around 1516.
The present bronze oil lamp exhibits numerous stylistic similarities with the work of Lombardo, both in bronze and in marble. Facially, the bronze can be compared to works such as the female figure wearing a diadem and holding the hand of the newborn child in the above-mentioned relief (for an illustration see Luchs, op. cit. fig. 170, p. 291). Both have the distinctively defined irises and pupils, delicate noses and sensual lips. Similar features can also be found in bronze casts of the young St. John the Baptist attributed to Lombardo (for one example in the Bargello, Florence, see ibid., fig. 165, p. 289. Another example is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 68.141.10), which also exhibits the thick locks of curling hair evident in the present bronze. Another relevant comparison can be made with the seated figure of a youth in the relief of The Contest of Minerva and Neptune for Attica (Hermitage, St. Petersburg; for an illustration see Ceriani, op. cit., no. 1, pp. 134-135). Both the seated figure and the oil lamp have the same overall body proportions and slender limbs, as well as the head of thickly curling hair.
It should also be noted that the relatively stylised treatment of the body type of the present bronze, with its lack of overt musculature and graceful positioning, also finds echoes in works by other artists of the period working in bronze including Antico (circa 1460-1528, active mainly in Mantua) and Andrea Riccio (circa 1470-1532, active mainly in Padua). From the former’s oeuvre one might cite his Spinario (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 2012.157, see Luciano, op. cit., pls. 20 and 20A), and among Riccio’s works the Seated Shepherd shows a similar overall body type as well as thickly curling hair (see Allen and Motture, op. cit., no. 2. pp. 234-237). It is clear that the author of this delicate – and seemingly unique - bronze was working directly in the orbit of the renowned sculptor Antonio Lombardo, but was probably also influenced by the sculptors working in the artistic centres of the wider Veneto region.
Antonio trained in the workshop of his father, Pietro Lombardo (1435-1515), and worked in both bronze and marble. His early career is still subject to discussion but with his first signed and documented work – a marble relief of The Miracle of the Newborn Child in the Chapel of St. Anthony, S. Antonio, Padua – he emerged as a highly accomplished and sought-after sculptor. Executed between 1500 and 1504, the relief established his reputation. Numerous other commissions followed and, in 1506, he would move to Ferrara where he executed a celebrated series of marble reliefs of mythological scenes for the palace of Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. He died in Ferrara in around 1516.
The present bronze oil lamp exhibits numerous stylistic similarities with the work of Lombardo, both in bronze and in marble. Facially, the bronze can be compared to works such as the female figure wearing a diadem and holding the hand of the newborn child in the above-mentioned relief (for an illustration see Luchs, op. cit. fig. 170, p. 291). Both have the distinctively defined irises and pupils, delicate noses and sensual lips. Similar features can also be found in bronze casts of the young St. John the Baptist attributed to Lombardo (for one example in the Bargello, Florence, see ibid., fig. 165, p. 289. Another example is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 68.141.10), which also exhibits the thick locks of curling hair evident in the present bronze. Another relevant comparison can be made with the seated figure of a youth in the relief of The Contest of Minerva and Neptune for Attica (Hermitage, St. Petersburg; for an illustration see Ceriani, op. cit., no. 1, pp. 134-135). Both the seated figure and the oil lamp have the same overall body proportions and slender limbs, as well as the head of thickly curling hair.
It should also be noted that the relatively stylised treatment of the body type of the present bronze, with its lack of overt musculature and graceful positioning, also finds echoes in works by other artists of the period working in bronze including Antico (circa 1460-1528, active mainly in Mantua) and Andrea Riccio (circa 1470-1532, active mainly in Padua). From the former’s oeuvre one might cite his Spinario (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 2012.157, see Luciano, op. cit., pls. 20 and 20A), and among Riccio’s works the Seated Shepherd shows a similar overall body type as well as thickly curling hair (see Allen and Motture, op. cit., no. 2. pp. 234-237). It is clear that the author of this delicate – and seemingly unique - bronze was working directly in the orbit of the renowned sculptor Antonio Lombardo, but was probably also influenced by the sculptors working in the artistic centres of the wider Veneto region.