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Lot Essay
This table fountain would have originally formed a focal point in a wealthy home or palace. The three heads of Cerberus are piped and water would have cascaded from their mouths, almost certainly into a basin underneath the fountain. Elaborate fountains were commissioned by royalty and nobility as important displays of wealth and style, and this decorative group would have been used to delight and entertain dinner guests. The house fountain became popular in Germany during the sixteenth century, particularly in wealthy towns such as Augsburg and Nuremburg which boasted strong metalworking industries.
Max Labenwolf (active 1561-1591) and Hans Reisinger (d. 1604) were the heads of two prominent Augsburg foundries which collaborated on a series of multi-figural fountains in Ducal gardens at the end of the sixteenth century. The present group is very likely from the same workshop as a figure of a seated Paris from the Judgement of Paris Fountain, executed by the Labenwolf-Reisinger workshop for Duke Ludwig of Württemberg (1554-93) between 1570 and 1580. Both Paris and Pluto share the same broad muscle mass of the torso and solid, large, squared and flattened fingers and toes, as well as a very distinctive styling of the hair with deeply cut, thick individual strands. Pluto’s short and overlapping, clinging drapery is also similar to Paris’ v-shaped loincloth.
Other works emanating from this workshop which specialised in animals include a bronze Bull (Rijksmuseum, inv. BK-15397), Jumping Unicorn (acquired by Elector Christian I of Saxony in 1589, now Staaliche Museum, Dresden, inv. IX 51), the Brunnenfigur Cross and Ape playing a banjo (both Württemberg State Museum), the latter of which finds very close parallels to the hands and feet of Pluto and paws of Cerberus in its chunky tail and paws. As was common in southern Germany at this period, the model for Labenwolf and Reisinger’s works were likely to have been supplied by a wood carver.
In the past Pluto and Cerberus has been grouped with a number of other bronze fountain figures, including the figure of Neptune in the present sale, which are now attributed to the Nuremberg sculptor Benedikt Wurzelbauer, but the stockier figure of Pluto indicates that the present bronze is by a different hand.
Max Labenwolf (active 1561-1591) and Hans Reisinger (d. 1604) were the heads of two prominent Augsburg foundries which collaborated on a series of multi-figural fountains in Ducal gardens at the end of the sixteenth century. The present group is very likely from the same workshop as a figure of a seated Paris from the Judgement of Paris Fountain, executed by the Labenwolf-Reisinger workshop for Duke Ludwig of Württemberg (1554-93) between 1570 and 1580. Both Paris and Pluto share the same broad muscle mass of the torso and solid, large, squared and flattened fingers and toes, as well as a very distinctive styling of the hair with deeply cut, thick individual strands. Pluto’s short and overlapping, clinging drapery is also similar to Paris’ v-shaped loincloth.
Other works emanating from this workshop which specialised in animals include a bronze Bull (Rijksmuseum, inv. BK-15397), Jumping Unicorn (acquired by Elector Christian I of Saxony in 1589, now Staaliche Museum, Dresden, inv. IX 51), the Brunnenfigur Cross and Ape playing a banjo (both Württemberg State Museum), the latter of which finds very close parallels to the hands and feet of Pluto and paws of Cerberus in its chunky tail and paws. As was common in southern Germany at this period, the model for Labenwolf and Reisinger’s works were likely to have been supplied by a wood carver.
In the past Pluto and Cerberus has been grouped with a number of other bronze fountain figures, including the figure of Neptune in the present sale, which are now attributed to the Nuremberg sculptor Benedikt Wurzelbauer, but the stockier figure of Pluto indicates that the present bronze is by a different hand.