CIRCLE OF MATTEO BOTTIGLIERO (1684-1756), MID 18TH CENTURY

In terms of style the two silver busts offered here are comparable to the types of silver busts being created in Naples in the mid 18th century. The male saint on the left of this illustration bears striking similarities to another silver bust of St Andrew by Matteo Bottigliero and Giuseppe Conforto in the Duomo of Amlafi (Fittipaldi, loc. cit.). Dated to circa 1717, this bust displays a near identical facial type with high, wrinkled, forehead, heavy eyelids, slightly opened mouth, intricately worked beard and a thin chemise with delicate wrinkled folds. Indeed, one can also see some similarities in the style of the elaborate foliate scrolls of the busts offered here and Bottigliero's pupil Giuseppe Sanmartino (1720-1793). The latter's silver busts of Mary Magdalene and St Dominic in the Capella del Tresoro di San Gennaro, Naples (Catello, loc cit.), display a comparable attention to the intricate and naturalistically worked foliage which is set against a punched background. Although the facial types of the two busts offered here are notably different from Sanmartino's it plausible that given the abovementioned similarities these busts hail could from the same artistic milieu.