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Lot Essay
This large and robustly modelled bronze group of a lion attacking a horse has, as its ultimate prototype, a restored antique marble group that is housed today in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. However, the Capitoline marble served first as the starting point for a bronze group emanating from the workshop of the Florentine sculptor Giambologna (1529-1608), and it is to this latter group that the present bronze is more closely related.
In fact, two pendant groups - of a lion attacking a horse and a lion attacking a bull - exist in numerous casts. They are referred to in an inventory of 1611 by Markus Zeh as being autograph works by Giambologna, but there are different opinions as to the authorship of the lion and horse group, which has been tentatively attributed by Avery to Giambologna's assistant, Antonio Susini (op. cit., p. 60).
In fact, when the present bronze was sold in 1961, it was attributed to the Susini workshop. However, the characteristics which one associates with Antonio Susini - the wire-brushed surface, the meticulous chiselling and the reddish-gold lacquer - are not in evidence here, and so one must look to other members of the Giambologna workshop for a possible source.
Among the other notable workshop assistants in the Borgo Pinti workshop, both Pietro Tacca and the Dutch sculptor, Adrien de Vries, have been cited as possible authors of a bronze pacing horse which is related to the present bronze group. Sold from the collection of Jacques and Barbara Schlumberger (Sotheby's New York, 26 January 2000, lot 65), it was attributed in the sale catalogue to Pietro Tacca. However, the horse subsequently entered the Robert H. Smith Collection where it was instead attributed to Adrien de Vries (Radcliffe and Penny, loc. cit.).
The Smith horse, like other pacing horses originating in Giambologna's workshop, is ultimately derived from the horse of the famous antique bronze equestrian group of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. However, in the entry in the Smith collection catalogue, the author notes that the thick, separate locks of hair of the horse's mane are close in style to horses by de Vries dated 1607 and 1610 (ibid, p. 238). One might also point out the thick set neck, the exagerrated brow, the simply indicated pupils and the flaring nostrils which are all common to the Smith horse and the horse of the bronze group offered here. Interestingly, de Vries's pacing horse dated 1610, and thought to have come from the Kunstkammer of Rudolf II, is on a larger scale (approximately 21in. high; for the entry see Adrien de Vries, op. cit., no. 25) than any of the standard pacing horses coming from the Giambologna/Susini workshops. The present group is also considerably larger than any of the lion and horse groups coming from the same source.
In fact, two pendant groups - of a lion attacking a horse and a lion attacking a bull - exist in numerous casts. They are referred to in an inventory of 1611 by Markus Zeh as being autograph works by Giambologna, but there are different opinions as to the authorship of the lion and horse group, which has been tentatively attributed by Avery to Giambologna's assistant, Antonio Susini (op. cit., p. 60).
In fact, when the present bronze was sold in 1961, it was attributed to the Susini workshop. However, the characteristics which one associates with Antonio Susini - the wire-brushed surface, the meticulous chiselling and the reddish-gold lacquer - are not in evidence here, and so one must look to other members of the Giambologna workshop for a possible source.
Among the other notable workshop assistants in the Borgo Pinti workshop, both Pietro Tacca and the Dutch sculptor, Adrien de Vries, have been cited as possible authors of a bronze pacing horse which is related to the present bronze group. Sold from the collection of Jacques and Barbara Schlumberger (Sotheby's New York, 26 January 2000, lot 65), it was attributed in the sale catalogue to Pietro Tacca. However, the horse subsequently entered the Robert H. Smith Collection where it was instead attributed to Adrien de Vries (Radcliffe and Penny, loc. cit.).
The Smith horse, like other pacing horses originating in Giambologna's workshop, is ultimately derived from the horse of the famous antique bronze equestrian group of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. However, in the entry in the Smith collection catalogue, the author notes that the thick, separate locks of hair of the horse's mane are close in style to horses by de Vries dated 1607 and 1610 (ibid, p. 238). One might also point out the thick set neck, the exagerrated brow, the simply indicated pupils and the flaring nostrils which are all common to the Smith horse and the horse of the bronze group offered here. Interestingly, de Vries's pacing horse dated 1610, and thought to have come from the Kunstkammer of Rudolf II, is on a larger scale (approximately 21in. high; for the entry see Adrien de Vries, op. cit., no. 25) than any of the standard pacing horses coming from the Giambologna/Susini workshops. The present group is also considerably larger than any of the lion and horse groups coming from the same source.