NORTH ITALIAN, SECOND HALF 16TH CENTURY

Details

A BRONZE INKWELL IN THE FORM OF A NEREID ASTRIDE A BASIN
NORTH ITALIAN, SECOND HALF 16TH CENTURY
With the coat-of-arms probably of the Delbue family of Mantua, the underside of base inscribed in red paint 40/501
5 ¼ in. (13.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Delbue Family, Mantua (probably).
Ferdinand Bischoffsheim (1837-1909) (almost certainly).
Marie-Laure, Vicomtesse de Noailles (1902-1970) (almost certainly).
Ferdinand Adda Collection.
Robert Strauss Collection; Christie's, London, 3 May 1977, lot 61.
Cyril Humphris Collection; Sotheby's, New York, 11 January 1995, lot 99.
Sotheby's, London, 8 December 2006, lot 56.

Literature

W. Bode, The Italian Bronze Statuettes of the Renaissance, ed. nd rev. J. Draper, New York, 1980, p. 103, pl. CLXIX,
M. Schwartz, ed., European Sculpture from the Abbott Guggenheim Collection, New York, 2008, p. 46, no. 16.
F. Scholten, The Robert Lehman Collection: European sculpture and metalwork, XII, 2011, pp. 58-59.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. G. Mann, The Wallace Collection Catalogues: Sculptures, London, 1931, pl. 21, fig. S. 87.
N. Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, vol. I, Oxford, 1992, cat. No. 233. pp. 299-300.

Exhibited

Paris, Petit Palais, Exposition de l'art Italien de Cimabue a Tiepolo, 1935 (almost certainly).

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Lot Essay

The present model of a helmeted nereid inkwell is known in a number of variants, one of which depicts the nereid holding or playing a stringed instrument resembling a cittern. Penny mentions further examples of the present bronze in the Ashmolean Museum (with coat-of-arms of the Malatesta family of Bologna), the Wallace Collection and in the collection of Baron and Baroness von Schröder (loc. cit.). The present bronze stands out amongst the known casts as a particularly fine example in facture and finish.

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