Lot 26: A BRONZE GROUP OF A CANDLESTICK-BEARING SATYR AND INKWELL

A BRONZE GROUP OF A CANDLESTICK-BEARING SATYR AND INKWELL
FOLLOWER OF ANDREA BRIOSCO, KNOWN AS RICCIO (1470-1532), CIRCA 1530-1540
The satyr seated before a quadrilobe-shaped inkwell, facing slightly to dexter and holding a candlestick nozzle in his right hand; medium brown patina; on a rectangular ormolu-mounted green marble base; minor wear to gilding on the base; the lid of the inkwell lacking, the satyr's horns filed off
8 3/8 in. (21.2 cm.) high; 11 7/8 in. (30.2 cm.) high, overall

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
L. Planiscig, Andrea Riccio, Vienna, 1927, pp. 351-352, fig. 427. J. Pope-Hennessy, A. F. Radcliffe, and T. W. I. Hodgkinson, The Frick Collection - An Illustrated Catalogue, III, New York, 1970, pp. 80-87.
W. Bode, The Italian Bronze Statuettes of the Renaissance, ed. and rev. by J. Draper, New York, 1980, p. 109, pl. CCXLII.
London, The Royal Academy, The Genius of Venice 1500-1600, (J. Martineau and C. Hope eds.), 25 Nov. 1983 - 11 Mar. 1984, no. S6, p. 362.
A. Radcliffe, M. Baker, and M. Maek-Gérard, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection of Renaissance and later sculpture with works of art in bronze, London, 1992, no. 35, pp. 212-217.
London, Daniel Katz Gallery, Renaissance Master Bronzes from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, The Fortnum Collection, J. Warren ed., 7 Jun.- 16 Jul. 1999, no. 26, pp. 84-86.
J. Warren, ''The Faun Who Plays on the Pipes': A New Attribution', in Small Bronzes in the Renaissance, D. Pincus, ed., New Haven and London, 2001, pp. 82-103.
Recent Acquisitions to the Robert H. Smith Collection of Renaissance Bronzes, London, 2007, no. 58, pp. 20-26, entry by A. Luchs and D. Smith

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE ERIC KORNER, ESQ.

This bronze candlestick and inkwell is a superb example of a composition which is represented by variant examples in the Frick Collection, the Schlossmuseum in Gotha, and the Robert H. Smith Collection, along with another example which was formerly in the collection of Augustus the Strong of Saxony, and was later sold from the Wernher Collection in these Rooms on 5 July 2000 (lot 66, £150,000 hammer).

When the Smith example was sold from the Weininger Collection in 1972, (Christie's, London, 5 December 1972, lot 45, £25,000 hammer), it was attributed to Andrea Briosco (1470-1532), known as Riccio. It had also formerly been included in Leo Planiscig's monograph on the great Paduan bronze sculptor as an autograph work (Planiscig, loc. cit.). However, when Anthony Radcliffe wrote about the same bronze in 1992 (when the bronze was in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection), he discussed the larger related group of bronzes and concluded that 'they cannot be the products of the mind or the hand of Riccio, or indeed of the workshop of which he was master' (Radcliffe, op. cit., p. 216). More recently, scholarship has focussed its attention on some of the other artists working in the same artistic circles as Riccio, in particular, Desiderio da Firenze.

As suggested by the name, Desiderio (fl. 1532-45) seems to have spent at least some of his formative years in Florence, but worked mainly in Venice and Padua. Very few documents exist regarding his career, and the only firmly attributed work is the Voting Urn which he executed for the Great Council of the Commune of Padua between 1532 and 1533 (now in the Musei Civici di Padova). In his recent work, Jeremy Warren argues that a number of bronzes formerly attributed to Riccio including, by extension, the present inkwell, are actually from the workshop of Desiderio, based on stylistic similarities which are ultimately linked to the Urn (Warren, 2001, op. cit.). Certainly, a number of factors, including the apparent absence of after-working of the surface of the inkwells, is atypical of the known practices of Riccio and his workshop. However, enough stylistic discrepancies survive among the bronzes being proposed as the work of Desiderio to warrant a note of caution in attributing all these works to him, and in a more recent entry on the Thyssen/Smith example (Luchs and Smith, loc. cit.) it is argued that the author of these early satyrs is a still-unidentified master working in Riccio's circle.
Despite the uncertainty regarding the authorship of the present inkwell, there can be no doubt as to the quality of the cast. It is certainly superior to the example sold from the Wernher Collection, which formerly belonged to Augustus the Strong of Saxony, and appears to be at least on a par with the Frick and Smith examples. Beautifully cast, all the details of the inkwell including the brows, moustache and beard come through with wonderful freshness. The author of the present piece, whether Desiderio or another artist in the same milieu, was a master of bronze-founding in 16th century Italy.