A BRONZE PAIR OF PUTTI

While not always presented as a pair, both models of these bronze putti have been attributed to the Italian sculptor Alessandro Algardi by Jennifer Montagu, who also suggests that these casts became quite popular in France in the middle of the 17th century (loc. cit.)

Similar in style to Algardi’s Infant Hercules with Snake, the model for the putto blowing a horn derives from a bronze in The Walter Art Gallery in Baltimore of a putto on a hippocamp. The present putto blows a horn while holding another one under his left arm, right where the hippocamp’s tail should follow. Another version of this model exists as part of a set of four putti playing musical instruments at the Wallace Collection in London.

The putto holding a wreath of laurel above his head was traditionally attributed to Fran?ois Duquesnoy, and can be most closely associated with a drawing in the Uffizi gallery in Florence. Another pair of the same models is in the collections of the Louvre, Paris (inv. OA, 10289 and OA. 10288).