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Lot Essay
This robustly modelled door-knocker appears to be the finest extant cast of this composition, which is known in at least four other versions: one formerly in the Spitzer Collection, one formerly in the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin listed as lost in 1945 (Pechstein, loc. cit.), one formerly in the Botkin Collection and now in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (Italienischen Bronzen aus der Ermitage, loc. cit.) and one in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (Planiscig, loc. cit.).
In general terms, this doorknocker follows a format which is generally believed to have originated in Venice in the 16th century, and in the entry for the Vienna example they site an 18th century source which suggests that one cast was taken from the door of the Palazzo Bragadin, near Sta Maria Formosa in that city. When Bode included the Beit example in his Italian Bronze Statuettes of the Renaissance (loc. cit.), he attributed it tentatively to Jacopo Sansovino, however Boucher (loc. cit.) suggests that the larger group of doorknockers associated with the latter sculptor are more likely to be the product of some as yet unidentified foundry which broadly reflected the prevailing style of Sansovino's work.
However, it has recently been suggested by Manfred Leithe-Jasper that there may be a relationship between the present doorknocker and a small bronze allegorical figure in the Art Institute of Chicago recently attributed to Bartolomeo Ammanati by Ian Wardropper (loc. cit.). That they appear to be from the same hand is certainly the case; one need only compare the profile of the Chicago bronze to the profile of the female mermaid of the doorknocker to see a compelling similarity. The treatment of the headdress, the C-curls of the hair and the facial type itself are all almost identical, and the similarites are confirmed by the Michelangelesque proportions of the shoulders and the high, rounded breasts. Wardropper associates the Chicago bronze with two female figures offered by Sotheby's in the Cyril Humphris sale (New York, 10 Jan. 1995, lot 16) which had also been attributed to Ammanati. Wardropper's most compelling argument in favour of the attribution is his comparison of all three bronze figures with a stuccoforte model by Ammanati for one of the figures on the Benvides tomb of circa 1544 (Wardropper, op. cit., pp. 112-113, fig. 17). Although Wardropper acknowledges that the bronzes have a different finish to some of the other documented statuettes by the artist, he plausibly suggests that the bronzes may represent casts of Ammanati models that were carried out by founders not under his direct supervision. Similarly, the present doorknocker may be Ammanati's own very original invention which was then cast by assistants.
In general terms, this doorknocker follows a format which is generally believed to have originated in Venice in the 16th century, and in the entry for the Vienna example they site an 18th century source which suggests that one cast was taken from the door of the Palazzo Bragadin, near Sta Maria Formosa in that city. When Bode included the Beit example in his Italian Bronze Statuettes of the Renaissance (loc. cit.), he attributed it tentatively to Jacopo Sansovino, however Boucher (loc. cit.) suggests that the larger group of doorknockers associated with the latter sculptor are more likely to be the product of some as yet unidentified foundry which broadly reflected the prevailing style of Sansovino's work.
However, it has recently been suggested by Manfred Leithe-Jasper that there may be a relationship between the present doorknocker and a small bronze allegorical figure in the Art Institute of Chicago recently attributed to Bartolomeo Ammanati by Ian Wardropper (loc. cit.). That they appear to be from the same hand is certainly the case; one need only compare the profile of the Chicago bronze to the profile of the female mermaid of the doorknocker to see a compelling similarity. The treatment of the headdress, the C-curls of the hair and the facial type itself are all almost identical, and the similarites are confirmed by the Michelangelesque proportions of the shoulders and the high, rounded breasts. Wardropper associates the Chicago bronze with two female figures offered by Sotheby's in the Cyril Humphris sale (New York, 10 Jan. 1995, lot 16) which had also been attributed to Ammanati. Wardropper's most compelling argument in favour of the attribution is his comparison of all three bronze figures with a stuccoforte model by Ammanati for one of the figures on the Benvides tomb of circa 1544 (Wardropper, op. cit., pp. 112-113, fig. 17). Although Wardropper acknowledges that the bronzes have a different finish to some of the other documented statuettes by the artist, he plausibly suggests that the bronzes may represent casts of Ammanati models that were carried out by founders not under his direct supervision. Similarly, the present doorknocker may be Ammanati's own very original invention which was then cast by assistants.