Lot 432: WORKSHOP OF GIUSEPPE MAZZUOLI

ADORING ANGELS

heights 15 1/4 in., 15 3/4 in.; 38.7 cm, 40 cm

a pair, gilt terracotta

circa 1695

Heim Summer 1973, nos. 30-31; Washington, New York, Cambridge 1979-1982, nos. 22-23 (illus.)

Buzek 1988, pp.75-79; Draper 1994, pp. 59-63, fig. 11 (illus.)

Bishop Fabio de'Vecchi, Siena; Descended in the de'Vecchi family; Heim Gallery, London

In the Chigi Saracini collection in Siena are preserved a number of small terracotta works by Giuseppe Mazzuoli and his workshop. These portable figures often relate to large commissions in marble and were an economical means for the artist to hone his designs, communicate them to his patrons, and preserve them for posterity in his workshop. The present angels relate to Giuseppe Mazzuoli's pair of kneeling angels for either side of the high altar of the Church of S. Michele Archangelo, today called S. Donato, in Siena. Also related to the commission are a similar ungilt pair in the Chigi Saracini collection, a single angel missing its mate in the collection of the Princeton Art Museum, and another single angel without a mate which was formerly with Heim Gallery in Paris. James Draper has proposed a chronology for the four pairs represented: the Princeton angel and its lost mate formed the bozetto or initial sketch, by Mazzuoli's hand; the ex-Heim angel and lost mate are another modello, also by Mazzuoli himself but still showing variations from the finished marble; the present pair, with their gilt surfaces, and designs seemingly after the finished works, are presentation models created by his workshop for the purpose of communicating the visual idea to the patron; and finally the Chigi Saracini pair were created as ricordi for reference, also by the workshop. The provenance of the Sackler pair, which came through the family of the patron of the marbles, Bishop Fabio de'Vecchi, to the Heim Gallery in London, supports Draper's chronology.