VENETIAN, SECOND HALF 16TH CENTURY

This vigorous gilt-bronze figure of Vulcan has been included in a number of prestigious exhibitions, where it was attributed to the Venetian master Alessandro Vittoria (see, for example, Meesters van het brons, loc. cit.). This was based upon its similarity to a bronze of Milo of Croton, originally in the collection of Marco Mantova Benavides and now in the Ca d'Oro, Venice. Certainly, the head of the Vulcan closely resembles the head of the Milo, however the proportions of the torso and the finishing of the musculature are quite different between the two figures. In addition, the attribition of the Milo itself must be questioned, if not discarded. Originally proposed in the late 1920s by Fogliari, it has been maintained seemingly without critical analysis right up until the Vittoria exhibition of 1999 (Trento, Castello del Buonconsiglio, 'La Belissima Maniera' Alessandro Vittoria e la scultura veneta del Cinquecento, 25 Jun. - 26 Sep. 1999, no. 70). Described as an early work executed at the time Vittoria was working on the stucco decoration of the Scala d'Oro at the Doge's Palace, there are no compelling parallels with the artist's documented work of the 1550s. The present bronze must therefore be considered as a product of the flourishing world of Venetian bronze sculptors of which Vittoria was a single member.