LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY

细节

AN ITALIAN GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF HERCULES
Late 16th/Early 17th Century
The young Hercules depicted standing with his right fist clenched behind his back, while holding his club over his left shoulder and gazing to his left; on an integrally cast oval plinth and later ebonised wood pedestal.
8½in. (21.6cm.) high, the figure

来源

Dr. A. von Frey, Berlin.
Camillo Castiglione, Vienna, no. 32.
Anonymous Sale, Christie's, London, 4 July 1989, lot 128 (£85,000).

出版

L. Planiscig, Venezianische Bildhauer der Renaissance, Vienna, 1921, pp. 297-300, figs 306-309.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
C. Avery, La Spezia, Museo Civico Amedeo Lia - Sculture, Bronzetti, Placchetti, Medaglie, La Spezia, 1998, no. 97.

注意事项

This lot has no reserve.

拍品专文

When the present bronze figure was discussed by Leo Planiscig in his landmark study of Venetian bronzes (loc. cit.) it was attributed to Francesco da Sant'Agata on the basis of stylistic comparisons with the signed boxwood figure (S273) in the Wallace Collection thought to have been executed in 1522. Since that time, it has been recognised as one of a group of small bronzes attributable to a single artist who has thus far defied a firm attribution, but who was most recently given the name 'The Master of the Fitzwilliam Museum' by Charles Avery (loc. cit.). Most of the bronzes are of secular subjects and a large proportion of them are gilded, as in the present case. They all display a goldsmith-like attention to detail, as is evident here in the details of the hair, the facial features and the punching of the club and base.

Several bronzes by this master have appeared on the international market in the past decade; they include a seated Bacchus (Sotheby's, 9 December 1993, lot 106 (sold £ 95,000)), another version of the present model (Christie's, 15 December, 1998, lot 130 (sold £100,000)), and two versions of a seated Hercules (Christie's, 2 July 1996, lot 171 (sold £ 45,000) and 6 July 1999, lot 81 (sold £ 120,000)).