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拍品专文
The pose, with the putto lifting his right arm over his downturned head, and his left hand raised to his shoulder as if to hold an object, is based on a type of ancient Roman nude Eros supporting garlands. As Camins noted, an example of Erotes sarcophagi was known in quattrocento Florence. The high sandals (pyterges) of the figure were common to small bronze statuettes of deities (Lares figures) of antiquity thought to protect the Roman household (Camins, loc. cit.). The tortoise, on the other hand, was likely an invention of the artist, an allegorical reference perhaps playing on the slow nature of the animal or to temperance conquered by passion.
The putto is solid cast, with a rich chocolate brown patina, and significant remains of gilding to his hair, his sandals and the tortoise. It is related to a number of putti associated with the Florentine workshop of Donatello and Michelozzo di Bartolommeo (1396-1472). The rounded, wide-eyed face and soft, flat nose resemble the facial type so common to Donatello’s animated putti (Bellosi, op. cit., figs. 19-21). The twisting torso, with the slight shift of balance from one leg to another, and the contorted raising of the thick arms and hands, place the figure close to three bronze dancing putti made by Donatello in 1429 for the font of the Siena Baptistery (Schubring, op. cit., p. 29). Camins ruled out Donatello’s authorship of the present bronze but links it to a fourth dancing putto in the Bargello Museum that closely relates to the Siena putti. Camins writes 'since Michelozzo is recorded to have participated in this project from 1427, his hand in the present putto should not be ruled out’ (Camins, loc. cit.). The slightly off-balance posture, and the body type are seen regularly in high relief sculpture on which Michelozzo is known to have worked, particularly on the Aragazzi Tomb, Montepulciano (Lightbrown, op. cit., figs. 47-50), the exterior raised pulpit for Prato Cathedral (ibid, figs. 78-88), and in the Tabernacle of the Sacrament in the Vatican, which was produced collaboratively by Michelozzo and Donatello.
Two other examples of lesser quality of the model are known, but both lack the tortoise, the sandals and the gilding. These bronzes are in Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, and in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, formerly Dreyfus and then Kress collection (Pope-Hennessy, loc. cit.).
The putto is solid cast, with a rich chocolate brown patina, and significant remains of gilding to his hair, his sandals and the tortoise. It is related to a number of putti associated with the Florentine workshop of Donatello and Michelozzo di Bartolommeo (1396-1472). The rounded, wide-eyed face and soft, flat nose resemble the facial type so common to Donatello’s animated putti (Bellosi, op. cit., figs. 19-21). The twisting torso, with the slight shift of balance from one leg to another, and the contorted raising of the thick arms and hands, place the figure close to three bronze dancing putti made by Donatello in 1429 for the font of the Siena Baptistery (Schubring, op. cit., p. 29). Camins ruled out Donatello’s authorship of the present bronze but links it to a fourth dancing putto in the Bargello Museum that closely relates to the Siena putti. Camins writes 'since Michelozzo is recorded to have participated in this project from 1427, his hand in the present putto should not be ruled out’ (Camins, loc. cit.). The slightly off-balance posture, and the body type are seen regularly in high relief sculpture on which Michelozzo is known to have worked, particularly on the Aragazzi Tomb, Montepulciano (Lightbrown, op. cit., figs. 47-50), the exterior raised pulpit for Prato Cathedral (ibid, figs. 78-88), and in the Tabernacle of the Sacrament in the Vatican, which was produced collaboratively by Michelozzo and Donatello.
Two other examples of lesser quality of the model are known, but both lack the tortoise, the sandals and the gilding. These bronzes are in Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, and in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, formerly Dreyfus and then Kress collection (Pope-Hennessy, loc. cit.).