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Lot 47: - Circle of Giovanni Battista Caccini(1556-1613) Italian, Florence, late 16th/ early 17th century , Venus marina white marble

Est: £150,000 GBP - £250,000 GBP
Sotheby'sLondon, United KingdomDecember 02, 2008

Item Overview

Description

white marble

Dimensions

measurements note 106cm., 41¾in.

Notes

Venus's pose is based on two famous models by Giambologna: his marble Triumph of Florence over Pisa (Florence, Bargello) as far as the contrapposto stance with the arm crossed in front of her belly is concerned, and the bronze Venus after the Bath (examples in London, Wallace collection; Cardiff, National Museum of Wales; and elsewhere) as far as the bent arm drying her breast with a towel is concerned. In uniting both compositions, it coincides with Giambologna's Woman bathing (a later cast after this model is in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Brunswick) and his half-figure of Fata Morgana (formerly with Pat Wengraf, London), made in 1571 for the grotto in the garden Bernardo Vecchietti's Villa Il Riposo in Grassina, outside of Florence. Compared to the Brunswick bronze, Venus's left leg is raised much less and she does not look down here. Compared to the Fata Morgana, the figure's pose is symmetrically flipped, a towel is added to the hand in front of her breast, and the seashell is substituted with the dolphin's tail. Like the Fata Morgana, the Venus marina was originally used as a fountain figure, with the water gushing out of the dolphin's mouth. Despite the careful attention to Giambologna's models, the style of the Venus marina is not close to the Flemish master or his workshop. It was probably carved by one of the many sculptors who carved garden statuary in Florence in the early 17th century, and many of which received their training in the workshop of Giovanni Caccini RELATED LITERATURE
U. Berger and V. Krahn, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum Braunschweig. Bronzen der Renaissance und des Barock. Katalog der Sammlung, Brunswick 1994, no. 50, pp. 84-85; Giambologna: Triumph des Körpers, exh. cat., Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, 27 June - 17 September, 2006, no. 1, pp. 188-192; C. Pizzorusso, A Boboli e altrove: sculture e scultori fiorentini del Seicento, Florence, 1989

Auction Details

Old Master Sculpture and Works of Art

by
Sotheby's
December 02, 2008, 12:00 PM GMT

34-35 New Bond Street, London, LDN, W1A 2AA, UK