Lot Essay
The highly individual bronze bowl offered here can, on the basis of stylistic comparisons, be related to works of the Veronese sculptor Giuseppe de Levis. This can be most clearly seen in the near identical frieze of fantastical winged female figures alternating with symmetrical foliate scrolls that can be found on the bells and mortars that Avery refers to in his article on the artist (op. cit., p. 46, no. 2; pp. 48-9, nos. 6 and 8; p. 50., no. 11). Further comparisons can be made between the grotesque handles and the similar beasts on the base of an inkwell in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, as well as the figures on the bases of two andirons in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (ibid., nos. p. 59, fig. 11 and p. 63 fig. 1, respectively).