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Lot Essay
The bronze offered here, cast on an almost monumental scale, depicts the Roman empress Sabina (83 - 136⁄7 AD), wife and cousin of the emperor Hadrian. With wheat sheaves in her hair and on her breast she can be identified as Ceres, goddess of agriculture, grain, motherhood and fertility. She was one of the most visible and well- travelled of all empresses and was awarded the title of Augusta in 128 AD, eleven years after her husband succeeded as emperor.
This composition is known in at least two other casts, both of which have been attributed to Ludovico Lombardo or his immediate circle. One cast has an 18th century provenance where it was recorded among the property belonging to the monastery of the Canons Regular of the Lateran of San Giovanni di Verdara. It eventually made its way to the Ca d’Oro in Venice, and in 2008 it was exhibited at the Palazzo Grimani as a pendant to a bust of Hadrian. The second cast has an early provenance from the illustrious Este family where it is recorded in 1584 in the collection of Duke Alfonso II d’Este and is today in the Galleria Estense in Modena.
Although the present bust conforms almost entirely to the Venice and Modena casts in its composition, there are enough differences to suggest that this bust was not cast from the same mould, or is an aftercast of those busts. Rather, it would appear to have been cast from an independently modelled version. The almost unfinished nature of the cast may have been an attempt on the part of the artist to imitate classical bronzes, which were fashionable in Italy from the 16th century.
This composition is known in at least two other casts, both of which have been attributed to Ludovico Lombardo or his immediate circle. One cast has an 18th century provenance where it was recorded among the property belonging to the monastery of the Canons Regular of the Lateran of San Giovanni di Verdara. It eventually made its way to the Ca d’Oro in Venice, and in 2008 it was exhibited at the Palazzo Grimani as a pendant to a bust of Hadrian. The second cast has an early provenance from the illustrious Este family where it is recorded in 1584 in the collection of Duke Alfonso II d’Este and is today in the Galleria Estense in Modena.
Although the present bust conforms almost entirely to the Venice and Modena casts in its composition, there are enough differences to suggest that this bust was not cast from the same mould, or is an aftercast of those busts. Rather, it would appear to have been cast from an independently modelled version. The almost unfinished nature of the cast may have been an attempt on the part of the artist to imitate classical bronzes, which were fashionable in Italy from the 16th century.