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Lot Essay
Marcus Aurelius, the celebrated Roman philosopher-emperor, was known by history as the last of the Five Good Emperors. He was reared in the imperial court, and through a series of adoptions and marriages, was established as successor to the Emperor Antoninus Pius. Rising to power in 161 A.D. at the age of 40, Marcus reigned for almost 20 years, his first six years as co-regent with Lucius Verus.
The present bronze is a reduction of arguably the most important statue to survive unburied from antiquity. It survived the destructive era after the downfall of paganism and collapse of the Western Roman Empire probably because it was wrongly thought to represent the Emperor Constantine, and was therefore much-revered, rather than melted down. The bronze was hugely admired in the Renaissance, when it was finally correctly identified as Marcus Aurelius.
Michelangelo was one of those admirers, and was supposed to have addressed the statue with the words 'Move on, then; don’t you know that you’re alive?’, quoted in F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique - The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, New Haven and London, 1981, p. 254. Michelangelo used the statue as the focal point in his design for the piazza at the top of the Capitoline Hill, and the bronze stood there from 1538 until the 20th century, when it was replaced by a bronze copy to protect it from the elements.
At the same time Michelangelo designed for it a new marble base, but this was enlarged in 1561. The base of the Abbott-Guggenheim bronze does not conform to the enlarged base, but mirrors the oval shape of the piazza as Michelangelo intended. Camins pointed out that 'the larger plinth behind the statue, the addition of small square piers or ‘membretti’ in the corners…are reminiscent of Michelangelo’s architectural style’ whilst 'the contorted poses of the caryatid putti…ultimately derive from Michelangelo’s slaves for the tomb of Julius II’ (Camins, op. cit., p. 82).
Although the pedestal is unique, this statuette is known in three other versions. A version in the Bargello Museum, Florence, is signed under its base by Lodovico del Duca, and was listed in the 1553 inventory of the Medici Grand Ducal Collections. The modelling of the Abbott Guggenheim and Bargello bronzes are identical in many respects, particular in the modelling of the head, although the right hand of Marcus Aurelius is lower and clutching a scroll in the Abbott Guggenheim cast, and the two bronzes differ in size, surface quality and in their pedestals. The pedestal of the Bargello version is higher and narrower, and decorated with female herms and grotesque masks.
Lodovico was an important bronze sculptor working predominantly in Rome both on major projects and reductions of antique statues. His brother, Giacomo, was one of Michelangelo’s principal assistants, and continued to work with him until Michelangelo’s death in 1564, and this might explain the stylistic and possible historical associations of the present base to Michelangelo.
The bronze previously belonged to Edward Steinkopff who built up an important collection of decorative arts housed at Berkeley Square in London. Christie's sale of his works included important majolica, 16th century Limoges enamels, renaissance bronzes, and superb French furniture. The present bronze was bought at the Steinkopff sale by Alfred Spero, who was the leading sculpture dealer in London of the period. Spero presumably sold it to Ferdinand Adda, a major collector of both Islamic art; primarily Iznik pottery; and Renaissance bronzes, including a superb cast of Venus Drying Herself, which was sold at Christie’s London, 10 July 2014, lot 50, attributed to Antonio Susini.
The present bronze is a reduction of arguably the most important statue to survive unburied from antiquity. It survived the destructive era after the downfall of paganism and collapse of the Western Roman Empire probably because it was wrongly thought to represent the Emperor Constantine, and was therefore much-revered, rather than melted down. The bronze was hugely admired in the Renaissance, when it was finally correctly identified as Marcus Aurelius.
Michelangelo was one of those admirers, and was supposed to have addressed the statue with the words 'Move on, then; don’t you know that you’re alive?’, quoted in F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique - The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, New Haven and London, 1981, p. 254. Michelangelo used the statue as the focal point in his design for the piazza at the top of the Capitoline Hill, and the bronze stood there from 1538 until the 20th century, when it was replaced by a bronze copy to protect it from the elements.
At the same time Michelangelo designed for it a new marble base, but this was enlarged in 1561. The base of the Abbott-Guggenheim bronze does not conform to the enlarged base, but mirrors the oval shape of the piazza as Michelangelo intended. Camins pointed out that 'the larger plinth behind the statue, the addition of small square piers or ‘membretti’ in the corners…are reminiscent of Michelangelo’s architectural style’ whilst 'the contorted poses of the caryatid putti…ultimately derive from Michelangelo’s slaves for the tomb of Julius II’ (Camins, op. cit., p. 82).
Although the pedestal is unique, this statuette is known in three other versions. A version in the Bargello Museum, Florence, is signed under its base by Lodovico del Duca, and was listed in the 1553 inventory of the Medici Grand Ducal Collections. The modelling of the Abbott Guggenheim and Bargello bronzes are identical in many respects, particular in the modelling of the head, although the right hand of Marcus Aurelius is lower and clutching a scroll in the Abbott Guggenheim cast, and the two bronzes differ in size, surface quality and in their pedestals. The pedestal of the Bargello version is higher and narrower, and decorated with female herms and grotesque masks.
Lodovico was an important bronze sculptor working predominantly in Rome both on major projects and reductions of antique statues. His brother, Giacomo, was one of Michelangelo’s principal assistants, and continued to work with him until Michelangelo’s death in 1564, and this might explain the stylistic and possible historical associations of the present base to Michelangelo.
The bronze previously belonged to Edward Steinkopff who built up an important collection of decorative arts housed at Berkeley Square in London. Christie's sale of his works included important majolica, 16th century Limoges enamels, renaissance bronzes, and superb French furniture. The present bronze was bought at the Steinkopff sale by Alfred Spero, who was the leading sculpture dealer in London of the period. Spero presumably sold it to Ferdinand Adda, a major collector of both Islamic art; primarily Iznik pottery; and Renaissance bronzes, including a superb cast of Venus Drying Herself, which was sold at Christie’s London, 10 July 2014, lot 50, attributed to Antonio Susini.