Lot Essay
Francesco Bertos is known to have been working in Rome, in 1693, and is then recorded in Venice in 1710. Further references to his activities in and around Venice suggest he settled there, and commissions for Marshal Schulenburg, the Basilica of the Santo at Padua, and the Villa Manin at Passariano indicate that his work was admired by the most discerning and elevated of patrons.
Bertos was equally at home in marble and in bronze, but his most distinctive contribution in both media was to create complex pyramidal groups of acrobatically posed figures. Their subject-matter is often allegorical, and sometimes verges on the recondite. In view of the fact that these compositions are unlike any other Venetian sculpture of the period both in design and iconography, it seems likely that Bertos created a demand rather than satisfied an already existing one.
The present group, which is an allegory on the theme of the resurrection, is an entirely characteristic example of Bertos' production. At the base, a man and a woman are seen rising from their tombs. The bald and bearded figure of Father Time appears to menace them, but higher up and around about the presence of the Cross and an anchor, symbolic of Christian faith, suggest a triumph over death and time, which is confirmed by the crowning presence of an angel or genius, who was originally shown blowing the trumpet of fame.
The marble is signed 'HVCVSQ[V]E F. BERTOS LICVIT', which is typically cryptic, but may perhaps be translated as 'This much of F. Bertos was for sale'.
Bertos was equally at home in marble and in bronze, but his most distinctive contribution in both media was to create complex pyramidal groups of acrobatically posed figures. Their subject-matter is often allegorical, and sometimes verges on the recondite. In view of the fact that these compositions are unlike any other Venetian sculpture of the period both in design and iconography, it seems likely that Bertos created a demand rather than satisfied an already existing one.
The present group, which is an allegory on the theme of the resurrection, is an entirely characteristic example of Bertos' production. At the base, a man and a woman are seen rising from their tombs. The bald and bearded figure of Father Time appears to menace them, but higher up and around about the presence of the Cross and an anchor, symbolic of Christian faith, suggest a triumph over death and time, which is confirmed by the crowning presence of an angel or genius, who was originally shown blowing the trumpet of fame.
The marble is signed 'HVCVSQ[V]E F. BERTOS LICVIT', which is typically cryptic, but may perhaps be translated as 'This much of F. Bertos was for sale'.