AFTER FRANCESCO FANELLI (1577-1661?), EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

A BRONZE INKSTAND IN THE FORM OF A TRITON RIDING A DOLPHIN
AFTER FRANCESCO FANELLI (1577-1661?), EARLY 18TH CENTURY
Depicted riding a dolphin and bearing a sea-shell with a hinged lid, on a later ebonised spreading wood plinth, warm brown patina
4¾ in. (12 cm.) high; 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm.) high overall

Provenance

Formerly from the collection of J. R. Ritman, Amsterdam

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
H. Weihrauch, Europäische Bronzestatuetten, 15. -18. Jahrhundert, Braunschweig, 1967, p. 363. fig. 440
A. Radcliffe, M. Baker, M. Maek-Gerard, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection of Renaissance and later sculpture with works of art in bronze, London, 1992, no. 46, pp. 250-251
N. Penny, Catalogue of Early European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum - 1540 to the Present day, Oxford, 1992, vol. I, pp. 296-298, no. 232

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 21% will be added to the buyer''s premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Francesco Fanelli was a highly gifted Florentine sculptor who was summoned to the court of Charles I at the start of the second quarter of the 17th century. Fanelli's particular genius for small bronzes was so admired by the King that the latter commissioned a whole series of equestrian bronzes for the Royal collection. Yet while his most famous models were principally equestrian, Radcliffe (op. cit., p. 250) convincingly argues that on technical and stylistic grounds the model for the present lot also belongs to Fanelli's oeuvre. Of the two variants that exist for this model (examples of which are in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection (op. cit., nos. 45 and 46)), the present lot relates most closely to number 46, which is the finer, more dynamic but slightly later of the two. Of a similar size but lacking the fine after-working of the Thyssen-Bornemisza example, the present lot probably originates from the first half of the 18th century when pupils of Fanelli continued to work in London, and may have had access to the master's extant models and moulds.

More from AXEL VERVOORDT, ANTWERP

View All