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Lot Essay
In the 16th century the revival of interest in antique sculpture led to the creation of bronzes on secular themes such as the warrior on horseback. Among these, The Shouting Horseman by Riccio (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) is probably the best known, and it clearly inspired other sculptors working in northern Italy such as the author of the present bronze.
Although the rider of the bronze offered here exists in a number of examples, they are sometimes paired with a different horse, or without a horse altogether as with the example in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (see Leithe-Jasper, loc. cit.). Only four other groups with both the same horse and rider are known (in the Stiftmuseum Klosterneuburg, in the Bemberg Collection, Toulouse, and in the Frick and Metropolitan Museums in New York) although there are minor variations between them.
The horse in all these groups has long been recognised to derive from one of the Horses of San Marco in Venice, but it has also been noted that the difference in scale between the horse and rider indicates they have come from different sources. The scholar Leo Planiscig was the first to suggest that the rider had been taken from a group of a Horse and Rider Startled by a Snake from the Untermyer Collection (now Metropolitan Museum). That group was formerly attributed to the sculptor Riccio but is now more generically attributed to 'Northern Italy, possibly Padua'. More recently, Leithe-Jasper, followed by Scholten (locs. cit.) have suggested that the sculptor Desiderio da Firenze might be a possible candidate for the authorship of the rider although the stylistic similarities used in support of this argument leave some room for hesitation.
Although the rider of the bronze offered here exists in a number of examples, they are sometimes paired with a different horse, or without a horse altogether as with the example in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (see Leithe-Jasper, loc. cit.). Only four other groups with both the same horse and rider are known (in the Stiftmuseum Klosterneuburg, in the Bemberg Collection, Toulouse, and in the Frick and Metropolitan Museums in New York) although there are minor variations between them.
The horse in all these groups has long been recognised to derive from one of the Horses of San Marco in Venice, but it has also been noted that the difference in scale between the horse and rider indicates they have come from different sources. The scholar Leo Planiscig was the first to suggest that the rider had been taken from a group of a Horse and Rider Startled by a Snake from the Untermyer Collection (now Metropolitan Museum). That group was formerly attributed to the sculptor Riccio but is now more generically attributed to 'Northern Italy, possibly Padua'. More recently, Leithe-Jasper, followed by Scholten (locs. cit.) have suggested that the sculptor Desiderio da Firenze might be a possible candidate for the authorship of the rider although the stylistic similarities used in support of this argument leave some room for hesitation.