Lot 65: FRANCESCO FANELLI (1577-AFTER 1641) ITALIAN, SECOND QUARTER 17TH CENTURY A BRONZE RELIEF OF CHRIST

FRANCESCO FANELLI (1577-AFTER 1641) ITALIAN, SECOND QUARTER 17TH CENTURY A BRONZE RELIEF OF CHRIST CARRYING THE CROSS

Christ being dragged by a guard and helped by Simon of Cyrene, surrounded by Roman soldiers and with the two thieves following behind; dark brown-black patina, the upper left corner and one head of a soldier restored

PROVENANCE

sold in these rooms, 21st April 1988, lot 206
CATALOGUE NOTE

Formerly believed to be a model by Ferdinando Tacca, Radcliffe's research into the cabinet made for John Evelyn at the V&A, with its inset reliefs of Orpheus Charming the Animals, allowed him to link a corpus of reliefs and identify them as being by the Italian sculptor Francesco Fanelli. Aside from the Orpheus relief and associated animal plaques, the present relief of Christ Carrying the Cross as well as the reliefs of The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Marcus Curtius Leaping into the Gulf and Adam and Eve were subsequently attributed to his hand.

The relief of Christ Carrying the Cross is often paired with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, despite their incongruous subject matter. Examples of the pairing can be found in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (inv.nos.66.43.1-1) and the University of Kansas Museum of Art, Lawrence.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York has another cast of the present relief, formerly in the Linsky collection (inv.no.198260.109) and which is of octagonal rather than rectangular format. The Kansas version mentioned above shares this format, as do some casts of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, such as the one in the V&A (inv.A67-1951).

It is probable that this is the last remaining example of the Christ Carrying the Cross in private hands as there are less than 5 known examples, 3 of which are in museums.

RELATED LITERATURE
Radcliffe & Thornton, pp.254-62; Camins, pp.98-101, no.34;
V. Avery, pp.172-75, no.24

24.5 by 17.5cm., 9 5/8 by 17 7/8 in.