Lot 481: OTTAVIO AND NICOLA TOSELLI 1695-1777 AND 1706-?

THE MIRACLE OF THE CRANES
inscribed in cartouche on frame: AGELLUM IN ORA JULAE VERSUS THUSCIAM ARATRO SCINDENTE GLANDONE BUBULCO, QUI DE CAVA VOMERE CASU PENETRANT APERTA, PRODIERUNT ANGUES, MISELLUM EX SUBITO IMPETU ITA SUNT ADORTI HOMINEM INURIAM CREDERES AD REFERENDAM PRO EXTURBATA QUIETE, QUID CITO STRANGULASSENT ETIAM, IPSE NISI MISEROS SPISSIMOSQUE PER EDITOS CLAMORES FORTE DEPASCENTES SUPRA COLLEM GRUES IN OPEM ADVOCASSET: QUOT EMINUS IMPETITUM AB ILLIS CONSPICIENTES HOMINEM, EOVE TRUCI VEL MOTAE SPECTACULO, VEL EDULIORUM MEMORES PER EUM CUM ADVENIRENT QUOTANNIS PORRECTORUM, AUT DEMUM UBERI ALLECTAE ESCA FORTEM ADEO ADVERSUS IOLAS INSTITUERUNT PUGNAM, QUOD POSTREMO PIUM EDUCATOREM DE EXICIOSO DISCRIMINE SOSPITEM REDEMISSE, LUMINOSUS DE APOSA IN GRON: VERB: MEMORAB: BONON: AD A.S. 727 TESTIS EST QUO AUCTORE LOCO ITEM GRUARIA NOMEN ADVENISSE CONSTAT.
monogrammed OTV and dated 1733 on shield in lower right corner

height without frame 23 1/4 in., width 36 1/8 in, height overall with frame 41 in., width 44 3/4 in.; 59 cm, 91.7 cm, 104 cm, 113.7 cm

terracotta, in contemporary partially gilt wood frame

Washington, New York, and Cambridge, 1981, no. 42 (illus.)

Heim Gallery, London

RELATED LITERATURE

Riccòmini 1965, pp. 112-116

This lively relief executed by the Bolognese brothers Nicola and Ottavio Toselli commemorates a miracle which transpired in the year 727, in which a farmer plows over a nest of snakes and is rescued by a flock of cranes. Although dated six years later, it may have been commissioned on the millenium of the event. The latin inscription on the frame translates:

As a ploughman by the name of Glando was tilling a small plot of land in the region of Jula, facing Thuscia, some snakes, whose nest had accidentally been torn open by the ploughshare, quite suddenly sprang out and attacked the poor fellow as if to avenge themselves on him for having disturbed their rest. And they would quickly have choked him to death, too, had he not, by his frequent and pitiful cries, summoned to his aid certain cranes which were, by chance, foraging atop a hill. Those of the cranes which could see in the distance the man under attack by the snakes, either moved to pity by the spectacle of such an assault, or recalling the food which the ploughman had given them when they came every year or, finally attracted by the tasty morsels, boldly attacked the snakes until, at length, they rescued their grateful caretaker from dire distress. A splendid eyewitness from Aposa provides a record of this story in the Chronicles of Memorable Accounts in Bologna, in the year of our Saviour 727; and, by his authority, the name attributed to the place is Gruaria.