.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This door knocker relates closely to a group of slightly different design attributed to Alessandro Vittoria by Bode (W. Bode, The Italian Bronze Statuettes of the Renaissance, New York, 1980, pl. CLXXVII), then reattributed to Tiziano Aspetti (d. 1607) by Planiscig (L. Planiscig, Piccoli Bronzi Italiani del Renascimento, Milan, 1930, pl. CLXXV). This attribution is based largely on similarities between the standing Venus figures of the knocker in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin (illus. op. cit.), with the signed figure of Temperance by Aspetti on the balustrade of the high alter of the Santo at Padua. While the design of the current knocker varies considerably from this example of Aspetti's oeuvre, good comparison can be made with the modelling of the female figures, facial type and finishing of such details as the hair and fingers. Two other examples of the model attributed to Aspetti can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (illustrated J. Pope-Hennessy, Bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Renaissance Bronzes, Reliefs, Plaquettes, Statuettes, Utensils and Mortars, London, 1965, cat. no. 466 and 467, fig. 567 and 568).