Lot 53: A CARVED MARBLE FIGURE OF MELEAGER

A CARVED MARBLE FIGURE OF MELEAGER
CIRCLE OF VINCENZO DANTI (1530-1576), MID 16TH CENTURY
Depicted standing in contrapposto with his head turned to dexter and his left foot resting on a boar's head; on an integrally carved base with later surround; losses, damages and repairs
32½ in. (82.6 cm) high, overall

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, I Grandi Bronzi del Battisterio - L'Arte di Vincenzo Danti Disciepolo di Michelangelo, C. Davis & B. Paolozzi Strozzi eds., 16 Apr.- 7 Sept. 2008.

Villa Martelli, Florence
Mrs Ralph Merton and thence by descent to the present owner

THE PROPERTY OF TWO COLLECTORS
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Meleager was the son of Oeneus and Althea, the king and queen of Calydon. When he was born, the three Fates announced to his mother that Meleager would only live as long as a brand burning upon the hearth remained unconsumed. As a result Althaea took the brand from the fire and kept it hidden in a safe place.

Meleager grew up into a valiant warrior who was seemingly invulnerable to harm and it was he, along with a band of heroes, that went out to hunt the Calydonian Boar that was ravaging the local countryside. Despite his marriage to Cleopatra, the daughter of Idas, Meleager was in love with Atalanta, the only woman among the hunting party. He rejoiced when she was the first to wound the boar that he then proceeded to kill, and he awarded Atalanta the hide on the grounds that she had drawn the first blood. However, Meleager's maternal uncles, Toxeus and Plexippus, were enraged that the prize of the hunt should be awarded to a woman, and tried to take it for themselves. Meleager, enraged, fought his uncles and subsequently killed them. Upon hearing the news of her brothers' deaths, Althaea removed the half-consumed brand from its hiding place and cast it upon the fire. Meleager writhed in agony, and finally died when the brand was burned entirely into ash.

The marble figure of Meleager offered here is very closely related to the works of two contemporary, mid 16th century Florentine sculptors, Vincenzo Danti and Valerio Cioli. In terms of composition, the supple, contorted posture is reminiscent of a terracotta model of Honour overcoming Deceit and the marble figure of Apollo Pitio both attributed to Danti and housed in the Bargello, Florence (Florence, op. cit., no.3 and 5 respectively). The similarities in these distinctive pose are also mirrored by the similar treatment of the bodily proportions and of the physiognomy. Further similarities can also be drawn with the antique figure of Narcissus, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, that Cioli largely restored and recarved in the 1560s (http://collections.vam.ac.uk/indexplus/result.html). Here again one can see a very similar attention to the composition, facial type, treatment of the hair and suppleness of the male form that, when considered in conjunction with all the above-mentioned pieces, shows the artists' debt to Michelangelo. Although it is not yet possible to confirm an attribution for the Meleager offered here, there can be little doubt that it has its origin in the same cultural atmosphere that saw the creation of the closely related works by Danti and Cioli.