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Lot Essay
The present terracotta figure of the youthful St. John in the wilderness is unusually large in scale for such an early depiction. It shows the saint seated on a rocky outcrop with his hair shirt tied in knots at the shoulders and belted at the waist. His luxuriantly curling hair echoes the fur of the skin he is wearing, and both contrast with the smooth and elongated limbs and neck. The group was almost certainly originally painted, and there are holes in the top of the rock on which the saint sits at the reverse, possibly to insert real branches or foliage to enhance the realism of the setting.
The figure is closely related to a terracotta of the same subject in the Bargello, Florence, which Boucher attributes to the young Jacopo Sansovino (see Boucher, loc. cit.). That figure displays a very similar setting and pose, along with the youthful proportions and the yearning expression of the upturned face. However, the present lot is even more closely related - not least by pose - to a group of terracottas from an unidentifed master in the same circle who has been given the name 'The Master of the David and St. John Statuettes' on the basis of his prediliction for executing models of these two subjects (see Pope-Hennessy, loc. cit.). In the Wallace Collection there is a damaged terracotta St. John sitting in an identical pose, although in a somewhat less elaborate setting (Mann, loc. cit.) attributed to the master. Similarly, the Victoria and Albert Museum possesses a bust of St. John, attributed to the same hand, which is virtually identical to the present head, although the shoulders of the bust are clothed with classical drapery (Pope-Hennessy, op. cit., no. 176, fig. 187).
The figure is closely related to a terracotta of the same subject in the Bargello, Florence, which Boucher attributes to the young Jacopo Sansovino (see Boucher, loc. cit.). That figure displays a very similar setting and pose, along with the youthful proportions and the yearning expression of the upturned face. However, the present lot is even more closely related - not least by pose - to a group of terracottas from an unidentifed master in the same circle who has been given the name 'The Master of the David and St. John Statuettes' on the basis of his prediliction for executing models of these two subjects (see Pope-Hennessy, loc. cit.). In the Wallace Collection there is a damaged terracotta St. John sitting in an identical pose, although in a somewhat less elaborate setting (Mann, loc. cit.) attributed to the master. Similarly, the Victoria and Albert Museum possesses a bust of St. John, attributed to the same hand, which is virtually identical to the present head, although the shoulders of the bust are clothed with classical drapery (Pope-Hennessy, op. cit., no. 176, fig. 187).