ITALIAN, AFTER THE ANTIQUE, CIRCA 1722

Details

A BRONZE MODEL OF THE PORCELLINO
ITALIAN, AFTER THE ANTIQUE, CIRCA 1722
On an integral rectangular plinth; medium brown patina
15 5/8 x 17 x 10¾ in. (39.7 x 43.2 x 27.3 cm.)

Provenance

One of the 13 bronzes purchased by Thomas, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, 15 July 1723 for a total of £300.
Thence by descent at Shirburn Castle.

Literature

T. P. Connor, 'The fruits of a Grand Tour - Edward Wright and Lord Parker in Italy, 1720-22', in Apollo, July 1998, pp. 23-30.
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
G. Mansuelli, Galleria degli Uffizi - Le Sculture, Rome, 1961, I, pp. 78-80, fig. 50.
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique - The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, New Haven and London, 1981, pp. 161-162, no. 13.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The Porcellino, or Wild Boar, seems to have been discovered in Rome with other figures which made up a hunting scene. It appeared in a Roman guide of 1556 but by 1568 it was already in Florence, and by 1591 it was in the Uffizi (Haskell and Penny, loc. cit.). Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries it was widely admired as one of the most impressive and naturalistic pieces of ancient sculpture, however it was badly damaged in the fire at the Uffizi in 1762, 40 years after Wright and Parker would have seen it. Although immediately restored, the marble never regained the same level of popularity. The present depiction of the boar, robustly modelled and extensively punched, gives an excellent impression of the original state of the antique prototype.

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