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Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. Pope-Hennessy, Essays in Italian Sculpture, 'Some Bronze Statuettes by Francesco Fanelli', London, 1968, pp. 167-171, fig. 193.
Francesco Fanelli was an Italian sculptor who came to England and entered the employ of Charles I. A limited amount is known about his work, and our knowledge today is based upon inventories and a few documented bronzes. Among the most important of these sources is an inventory of the collection of the Duke of Newcastle at Welbeck, who was one of Fanelli's most important patrons. Two compositions of St. George are noted in that document; the present bronze possibly corresponds to the 'St. George horseback with the dragon dead'. There is another, formerly in the collection of Sir Thomas Holburne and now in the Holburne of Menstrie Museum, Bath (op. cit., p. 169). This differs slightly from the more active versions in the Victoria and Albert Museum and Duke of Portland's collections and which were probably listed as 'St. George combatant with the dragon' in the Welbeck inventory (op. cit., figs. 194 and 195).
J. Pope-Hennessy, Essays in Italian Sculpture, 'Some Bronze Statuettes by Francesco Fanelli', London, 1968, pp. 167-171, fig. 193.
Francesco Fanelli was an Italian sculptor who came to England and entered the employ of Charles I. A limited amount is known about his work, and our knowledge today is based upon inventories and a few documented bronzes. Among the most important of these sources is an inventory of the collection of the Duke of Newcastle at Welbeck, who was one of Fanelli's most important patrons. Two compositions of St. George are noted in that document; the present bronze possibly corresponds to the 'St. George horseback with the dragon dead'. There is another, formerly in the collection of Sir Thomas Holburne and now in the Holburne of Menstrie Museum, Bath (op. cit., p. 169). This differs slightly from the more active versions in the Victoria and Albert Museum and Duke of Portland's collections and which were probably listed as 'St. George combatant with the dragon' in the Welbeck inventory (op. cit., figs. 194 and 195).