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Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. C. Robinson, Catalogue of the various works of art forming the collection of Mathew Uzielli, London, 1860, no. 613.
Fifty Treasures of the Dayton Art Institute, exh. cat., Dayton Ohio, 1969, p. 76 no. 24.
K. Watson and C. Avery, 'Medici and Stuart: A Grand Ducal Gift of 'Giovanni Bologna' Bronzes for Henry Prince of Wales (1612),' The Burlington Magazine, August 1973, pp. 493-507.
C. Avery and A. Radcliffe, eds., Giambologna: Sculptor to the Medici, exh. cat., London, 1978, no. 16.
This model of Fortuna retains all the grace of Giambologna's original design and is one of the most dramatic and spectacular compositions conceived for bronze, with the bravura touch of the drapery testing the metal to its utmost.
Most examples show Fortuna, or the Venus Marina, as it has often been called, with the sails having been ripped away by the wind. Two of Giambologna's best models are in the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and, as Avery notes, none of them appear to have ever been intended to have had the full sail or drapery as their ends are finished (Avery, 1978, op. cit., pp. 69-71). That there was contemporary version is almost certain. A closely related figure of Fortuna can be seen in a painting by Rudolph II's court painter Bartolomäus Spranger (1546-1611), where she is depicted standing on a cart wheel, set horizontally (Dayton, op. cit.). Giambologna's authorship of the original model, dated between 1565 and 1570 - together with the involvement of Antonio Susini with the actual casting - has been extensively discussed by Watson and Avery (op. cit., pp. 501-503). Also discussed is how Fortuna was conceived as a pair to Giambologna's equally iconic Mercury.
There are very few extant versions of Fortuna with the full sail or drapery. Besides the Hall Fortuna, another version, coincidentally originally in the Hall Collection, and later in the Collection of John Gaines, was sold Christie's, New York, 18 May 2005, lot 540.
One of these two is almost certainly from the Uzielli collection and is described in the catalogue: 'Venus. A standing statuette the left arm upraised, holding one end of a scarf or mantle, the other end of which is held in the right hand, and is supposed to be floating in the wind, forming an arch above the head of the figure. A highly finished cinque-cento bronze. From the Collection of the Marquis della Gherardesca, Florence, 1859. Entire height about 18 in.' (Robinson, op. cit.).
J. C. Robinson, Catalogue of the various works of art forming the collection of Mathew Uzielli, London, 1860, no. 613.
Fifty Treasures of the Dayton Art Institute, exh. cat., Dayton Ohio, 1969, p. 76 no. 24.
K. Watson and C. Avery, 'Medici and Stuart: A Grand Ducal Gift of 'Giovanni Bologna' Bronzes for Henry Prince of Wales (1612),' The Burlington Magazine, August 1973, pp. 493-507.
C. Avery and A. Radcliffe, eds., Giambologna: Sculptor to the Medici, exh. cat., London, 1978, no. 16.
This model of Fortuna retains all the grace of Giambologna's original design and is one of the most dramatic and spectacular compositions conceived for bronze, with the bravura touch of the drapery testing the metal to its utmost.
Most examples show Fortuna, or the Venus Marina, as it has often been called, with the sails having been ripped away by the wind. Two of Giambologna's best models are in the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and, as Avery notes, none of them appear to have ever been intended to have had the full sail or drapery as their ends are finished (Avery, 1978, op. cit., pp. 69-71). That there was contemporary version is almost certain. A closely related figure of Fortuna can be seen in a painting by Rudolph II's court painter Bartolomäus Spranger (1546-1611), where she is depicted standing on a cart wheel, set horizontally (Dayton, op. cit.). Giambologna's authorship of the original model, dated between 1565 and 1570 - together with the involvement of Antonio Susini with the actual casting - has been extensively discussed by Watson and Avery (op. cit., pp. 501-503). Also discussed is how Fortuna was conceived as a pair to Giambologna's equally iconic Mercury.
There are very few extant versions of Fortuna with the full sail or drapery. Besides the Hall Fortuna, another version, coincidentally originally in the Hall Collection, and later in the Collection of John Gaines, was sold Christie's, New York, 18 May 2005, lot 540.
One of these two is almost certainly from the Uzielli collection and is described in the catalogue: 'Venus. A standing statuette the left arm upraised, holding one end of a scarf or mantle, the other end of which is held in the right hand, and is supposed to be floating in the wind, forming an arch above the head of the figure. A highly finished cinque-cento bronze. From the Collection of the Marquis della Gherardesca, Florence, 1859. Entire height about 18 in.' (Robinson, op. cit.).