BUST OF A LADY

When the present bust was in the collection of Professor Michael Jaffe, it was described as being from the second school of Fontainebleau, with its elongated neck, oval face and elaborately plaited hair. Comparisons could certainly be drawn to works such as the marble Three Graces carved by Germain Pilon in the 1560s for the Monument of the Heart of Henri II of France or the slightly later bronze figures by Barthelemy Prieur for the Monument of the Heart of the Duke de Montmorency (both Louvre, Paris; see J.-R. Gaborit et al, Sculpture Française, II – Renaissance et temps modernes, vol. 2, pp. 525 and 547-8). However, similarities can also be found in the work of Italian artists such as Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511-1592) or Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) whose female figures frequently display the prominent, high-bridged nose, oval face and elaborate hair style seen here (see, for example, Ammannati's figure of Victory in B. Paolozzi Strozzi and D. Zikos, eds., L'Aqua, La Pietra, Il Fuoco - Bartolomeo Ammannati Scultore, Florence 2011, figs.15-16). However, details including the somewhat softer arrangement of the hair create a sense of naturalism that is unlike the highly finished work of these earlier sculptors, and suggests a date in the early years of the 17th century.
A bronze bust of Flora, possibly from the same hand as the present bronze, was previously in the Robert von Hirsch collection and was sold at Sotheby's on 20th June 1978, lot 355 and 2nd July 1997, lot 121.