Lot 64: FRANCESCO FANELLI (1577-AFTER 1641) ITALIAN, PROBABLY GENOA, SECOND QUARTER 17TH CENTURY A BRONZE

FRANCESCO FANELLI (1577-AFTER 1641) ITALIAN, PROBABLY GENOA, SECOND QUARTER 17TH CENTURY A BRONZE REARING HORSE

the stallion rearing up on its hind legs, his head inclining to the right with pricked ears and flowing mane pulled mostly to the left side of the neck; set upon a shaped veined grey marble plinth decorated with swags

PROVENANCE

Private Collection, Milan
CATALOGUE NOTE

This majestic Rearing Horse shows Fanelli's skill at rendering equine anatomy. The rippling compression of the shoulder muscles as the forelegs unfurl, and the mane flung to one side, give the model a vivacious effect of arrested movement. It has not been previously published.

Wixom notes that the Berlin Museum contains two Rearing Horses, formerly in the Dr. James Simon collection, which mirror each other and were probably intended as pendants (inv.nos.5034-35; see Goldschmidt op.cit.). The present model is another cast of the latter, 14.5cm-high horse, while the cast catalogued by Wixom in the Heinz Schneider collection relates to the former.

Both Weihrauch, who illustrated another cast of the present Rearing Horse model in the collection of Dr. Schrafl, Zürich, followed by Wixom, believed the model to emanate from the workshops of Giambologna. However more recent research by Avery on a closely similar but larger variant in the Alexis Gregory collection has identified Fanelli as the undisputed author of this group of related horses.

Other casts of the present model exist as follows: in a private collection, Kent; as exhibited at Schloss Schallaburg, 1976 (op.cit); as sold from the Dr. Eduard Simon Collection (no.62, paired with a trotting horse after Giambologna no.61); as sold in these rooms 2 July 1973, lot 62. The model is often confused with a similar Rearing Horse (e.g. Bargello inv.no.430) used by Fanelli for one of his two St.George & the Dragon groups. This however has the mane flowing on the proper right side of the neck and a more spirited tail.

RELATED LITERATURE
F.Goldschmidt, Die Italienischen Bronzen der Renaissance und des Barock, Königliche Museen zu Berlin 1914, pp.36-7, nos.170-171, pl.56;
Die Sammlung Dr. Eduard Simon, Cassirer & Helbing auction cat., Berlin 1929, p.134, no.62;
H.Wiehrauch, Europäische Bronzestatuetten, Braunschweig 1967, p.226, pl.273;
Bronzes de la Renaissance, Chateau de Laarne exh.cat., Brussels 1967, p.118, no.79;
W.Wixom, Renaissance Bronzes From Ohio Collections, Cleveland Museum of Art 1976, no.146;
M.Leithe-Jasper, Italienische kleinplastik [...] des 16. & 17. Jahrhunderts, exh.cat., Schloss Schallburg 1976, no.9981;
C.Avery (ed.), Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Alexis Gregory Collection, exh.cat., Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Mass. 1996, no.42

horse: 15cm., 6in. base: 27 by 19cm., 10 1/2 by 7 1/4 in.