Lot 17: A BRONZE INKWELL IN THE FORM OF A SEATED VENUS

A BRONZE INKWELL IN THE FORM OF A SEATED VENUS
CIRCLE OF HANS MONT (1545-1582), LATE 16TH CENTURY
Venus depicted seated on a rocky outcrop and holding a candlestick nozzle in her right hand; on an integrally cast naturalistic base with circular inkwell; warm medium brown surface with extensive traces of a dark brown patina; the base inscribed in red paint '24/10300'; the underside also inscribed '54' and 'VT/83' (?); the lid of the inkwell lacking
9½ in. (24.1 cm.) high

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Essen, Kulturstiftung Ruhr Villa Hügel, Prag um 1600 - Kunst und Kultur am Hofe Rudolfs II., 10 Jun. - 30 Nov. 1988.

Sotheby's, London, 6 July 1989, lot 57.

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
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In terms of composition and style the bronze seated Venus offered here relates very closely to two works attributed to the Flemish court sculptor to Rudolph II, Hans Mont (1545-1585). In the bronze group of Mars and Venus in the J. P. Getty Museum, Malibu and a different marble group of the same subject in the Nationalgalerie, Prague (op. cit., p. 166, no. 73), as well as the bronze offered here, one can see a very distinctive rendering of the torsion in Venus' torso. This dynamic pose, in part created by Venus' exaggerated backwards tilt, is complimented by a clever positioning of the feet that means she is depicted in a complex, serpentine, composition. Stylistically all three Venuses are also comparable in that they are modelled with similarly narrow shoulders with wide, but shallow, hips and oval faces with heavy eyelids and pronounced brows. In considering the authorship of this seated Venus, it is also worthwhile highlighting the comparable workmanship on a small bronze group of Neptune and Caenis (op. cit., p. 169, no. 76) attributed to the Flemish-born painter and sculptor Bartholomäus Spranger (1546-1611), who was also working in the court of Rudolf II. As with the above-mentioned groups, Spranger's female protagonist has a similarly dynamic and near-impossible pose but, more specifically, a very similar and highly individual treatment of the naturalistic ground in which the artist juxtaposes different types of punch marks with unworked areas of bronze to differentiate the various textures of the ground. Though these similarities do not constitute an attribution they do suggest that the present bronze was created within the artistic milieu of both Mont and Spranger.