Tiziano Aspetti (1565-1607) Italian, Venice, circa 1590

on an integral base decorated with cherubs and the underside inscribed in white ink: LOAN / 1990

Professor Michael Jaffé CBE (1923-1997), Cambridge, United Kingdom;
and thence by family descent;
on loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom (1976 - 2014)

Overall the condition of the bronze is good with wear and dirt to the surface consistent with age with some particular wear to the patina at the proper left upper leg. There are some areas with minor dents including at the proper right elbow, proper left knee and edges of the base. The figure was cast in sections; joints are visible at the proper left shoulder and proper right ankle. There are some minor lacunae due to casting flaws and one larger on to the proper left shin. A number of original slightly corroded iron sprues are visible throughout.
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This beautifully cast figure of Mars by Tiziano Aspetti relates closely to another cast in the Frick Collection, New York (inv. No. 16. 2. 56), which is widely regarded as being the exemplar of this iconic model (Kryza-Gersch, op. cit.), with an attribution to Aspetti that ‘is not open to serious doubt’ (Pope Hennessy, op. cit., p. 184). The subject has previously been identified as Perseus, given the presence of the Medusa head on the shield. However, the existence of a cast formerly in the Cyril Humphris collection (sold Sotheby’s New York, 10 January 1995, lot 25) paired with a figure of Venus has confirmed the traditional identity as being Mars, which was accepted by Pope-Hennessy (op. cit., p. 183). A bronze Venus in the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, has been posited as the missing pendant to the Frick statuette (Kryza-Gersch, op. cit., pp. 148-149). Casts of the Mars recorded include those: in the Basner collection, Danzig-Zoppot (untraced); the Richard von Kaufmann collection (sold Sotheby’s New York, 22 June 1989, lot 85); the Walter P. Chrysler collection (sold Christie’s New York, 11 January 1992, lot 132; paired with a Venus); the Bode Museum, Berlin (inv. no. 8647); and at Christie’s London, 15 December 1998, lot 129. Claudia Kryza-Gersch argues that, unlike the Frick bronze, these casts cannot be given to Aspetti himself but are the work of talented artisan founders, as they differ from the Frick cast compositionally. In these bronzes, Mars has been turned to the left, with his thighs closer together, his proper left leg lowered and his shield more clearly visible, with the result that ‘Mars’s original powerful and dynamic pose has been altered to that of a coquettish dancer’ (Kryza-Gersch, op. cit., p. 151). A proliferation of detail on the Humphris and Basner casts, such as dots on the shields,  further indicates that they were made by a commercial foundry intent on exploiting their decorative potential (Kryza-Gersch, op. cit., pp. 150-151).

The present bronze retains the compositional integrity of the Frick cast, in exhibiting the same sense of monumentality and coiled energy, with the war god’s legs set firmly apart, whilst his heaving torso turns to the left, as his proper right arm reaches in the counter direction for his scabbard. Unlike in the later casts, the god’s right leg is visibly raised by the cuirass at his feet, the shield is seen obliquely, and the body pivots at the same point as in the Frick statuette. The quality of the casting is excellent, particularly in the god’s eyes and in the face of the Medusa, and exhibits the freedom and ‘appreciation for the rich possibilities of the material’ noted in Aspetti’s bronzes by Kryza-Gersch (op. cit., p. 152). Observe the slender fingers and the tort triceps in the right arm and bulging pectoral muscles as the war god reaches across his body for his sword. Like the Frick bronze, the present statuette has an integrally cast base. The design, however, differs from the Frick statuette and is similar to that found on a cast of Aspetti's Venus in the Bode Museum, Berlin (inv. no. 524). The Bode bronze has a further interesting correspondence to the present figure: the pupils have not been incised lending a classicising air to the statuette.

The attribution of the model to Aspetti was first made by Bode and Planiscig, with the latter comparing the god’s plumed all’antica helmet and prominent moustache and beard with soldiers on Aspetti’s documented bronze reliefs of the Martyrdom of Saint Daniel for the altar of the crypt of the Duomo in Padua (Planiscig, op. cit., pp. 566-572). This attribution was strengthened by Kryza-Gersch, who compared the Frick bronze to Aspetti’s Giant of 1590-1591 outside the Zecca in Venice, observing that ‘both figures follow the same compositional pattern of an elegant rotation that animates the whole figure combined with the characteristic gaze over one shoulder’ (Kryza-Gersch, op. cit., pp. 146-147).

Tiziano Aspetti was the leading sculptor in the Serenissima during the second half of the 16^th century after Girolamo Campagna (1549-1625). In their mannerist poses and classicising monumentality, his works show the influence of Giambologna and Michelangelo. For much of his life Aspetti was resident sculptor to Giovanni Grimani, Patriach of Aquileia, who possessed one of the greatest collections of antiquities in Venice. None of his bronze statuettes are signed and, as such, attributions to his hand are often made in relation to his highly successful Paduan reliefs of The Martyrdom of Saint Daniel, which served to cement his reputation during his lifetime.

RELATED LITERATURE
L. Planiscig, Venezianische Bildhauer der Renaissance, Vienna, 1921, pp. 566-572; J. Pope-Hennessy, The Frick Collection. An Illustrated Catalogue, New York, 1970, vol. iii, pp. 183-184, C. Kryza-Gersch, ‘Original Ideas and Their Reproduction in Venetian Foundries: Tiziano Aspetti’s Mars in the Frick Collection - A Case Study,’ D. Pincus, Small Bronzes in the Renaissance, New Haven and Yale, 2001, pp. 143-157; V. Krahn, Bronzetti Veneziani. Die venezianischen Kleinbronzen der Renaissance aus dem Bode-Museum Berlin, cat. Bode Museum, Berlin, 2003, nos. 38-39, pp.152-157