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Lot Essay
The present group of Pan and a Nymph, is an interpretation of the Roman Imperial antique marbles of Pan and Apollo, the prime example of which is housed in the Museo Nazionale, Rome (Haskell and Penny, op. cit, no. 70). In terms of general composition the present lot compares very closely to the antique originals, with the exception of Apollo, who has been transformed into a nymph. The Museo Nazionale group was discovered shortly before 1550 and was displayed in the Cesi sculpture garden, Rome. In 1662 it was given to the Ludovisi family who placed it in the Bosco delle Statue outside the Palazzo Grande and in 1901 was eventually purchased by the Italian government and placed in the aforementioned museum.
It is quite clear that the antique prototype was highly regarded, as can be seen from Riccio's bronze groups of the Satyr and Satyress (examples of which can be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Szépmümvészeti Museum, Budapest (Frankfurt, op. cit, nos. 166 and 168 respectively)). Such an early appreciation of this group would explain why reduced-scale bronzes and marbles (like similar ones of the Spinario, Boy with the Goose and Marcus Aurelius on Horseback) exist, but the present lot is of particular significance as it is not only a 16th century interpretation but it also incorporates an antique head for the figure of the Nymph.
Although the creation of new marble works of art which incorporated antique fragments was fairly common practice by the 17th and 18th centuries it also happened on a much smaller scale in the 16th century. The most famous examples of this are the bust of the Dying Alexander in the Uffizi, Florence (Haskel and Penny, op. cit, no. 2), that incorporates an antique head set onto marble shoulders carved by Giambologna, and the marble group of the Laöcoon in the Musei Vaticani, Rome (Haskel and Penny, op. cit, no. 52), that had numerous additions carved by Michelangelo. The present group, therefore, hails from a period of reverence for antiquity, and innovation in its integration in contemporary art.
It is quite clear that the antique prototype was highly regarded, as can be seen from Riccio's bronze groups of the Satyr and Satyress (examples of which can be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Szépmümvészeti Museum, Budapest (Frankfurt, op. cit, nos. 166 and 168 respectively)). Such an early appreciation of this group would explain why reduced-scale bronzes and marbles (like similar ones of the Spinario, Boy with the Goose and Marcus Aurelius on Horseback) exist, but the present lot is of particular significance as it is not only a 16th century interpretation but it also incorporates an antique head for the figure of the Nymph.
Although the creation of new marble works of art which incorporated antique fragments was fairly common practice by the 17th and 18th centuries it also happened on a much smaller scale in the 16th century. The most famous examples of this are the bust of the Dying Alexander in the Uffizi, Florence (Haskel and Penny, op. cit, no. 2), that incorporates an antique head set onto marble shoulders carved by Giambologna, and the marble group of the Laöcoon in the Musei Vaticani, Rome (Haskel and Penny, op. cit, no. 52), that had numerous additions carved by Michelangelo. The present group, therefore, hails from a period of reverence for antiquity, and innovation in its integration in contemporary art.