ITALIAN, LATE 16TH OR EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Only one other version of this model is known thus far, and it was the appearance of that bronze at auction (Christie's, 4 July 1989, lot 128 (sold £85,000)) which brought this example to light. At the time of the auction in 1989, the model was attributed to Francesco da Sant'Agata on the basis of its resemblance to the signed wood figure in the Wallace Collection, dated to 1520 (Mann, loc. cit.). However, despite the obvious similarities of the pose between the wood figure and this bronze, it now seems clear that the bronze belongs to a group of bronzes by another, as yet unidentified, sculptor. Other examples from the group include a seated Bacchus (Sotheby's, 9 December 1993, lot 106, as Manno di Sebastiano Sbarri (sold £95,000)) and a bearded, seated Hercules (Christie's, 2 July 1996, lot 171 (sold £45,000). All of them exhibit a goldsmith-like attention to detail. The present bronze is particularly remarkable for the highly worked surface, which has been enlivened by extensive hammering, and for the inclusion of minute veins which can be seen across the backs of the hands, the side of the neck, the upper arms and the lower abdomen.

Eduard Arnhold (1849-1925) was one of the most important patrons of the arts in Germany at the beginning of this century. Based in Berlin, Arnhold was an avid collector of renaissance painting and sculpture, as well as German and French Impressionists. Many works from the Arnhold collection have subsequently entered other prestigious private and insitutional collections, including Manet's Le Bon Bock, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Cezanne's Dans le vallée de l'Oise, now in the Goetz Collection, Los Angeles. This bronze Hercules also formed part of that collection, and was almost certainly acquired during one of Arnhold's many visits to Italy.