Attributed to Desiderio da Firenze, Veneto, active 1532-1545 After a model by Severo da Ravenna Italian, circa 1530-1540

with right arm outstretched holding a cornucopia terminating in a candle nozzle, his left hand resting on a cauldron shaped inkwell, the top of his head with circular aperture, greenish dark brown patina  

From the Collection of M.S.W. Josephus Jitta, Amsterdam sale catalogue, M.M.Frederik Muller & Co, 1897, lot 193 and thence by descent

Finely cast with good attention to detail.Nozzle of candle pierced with circular aperture and section at top missing as visible in the catalogue photograph. Casting joint below shoulder of right arm. Traces of old solder on base of bowl. The satyr would originally have been attached to a base and there is an old pin head evident in the top of his right hoof and the underside of his left knee and left hoof. Small white fleck ( of paint?) on left elbow.
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The satyr rests on one knee, whilst with his right hand he holds a cornucopia terminating in a candle nozzle crisply cast with a festoon of foliage. His left hand rests on a cauldron at his side.The face is that of a young man with furrowed brow and long straight nose, his curly hair is surmounted by two goat’s horns and his ears are pointed.  The eyes are drilled.  

Although originally attributed to Riccio by Planisicig it is now generally accepted that the original model for this kneeling satyr was produced by Severo da Ravenna. However in the present example the detailed precision of the cast is very different to those generally accepted as being by Severo. The present finely cast candlestick and inkwell can technically be closely compared to that of the figure Pan listening to Echo in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford as well as a further example of Pan sold in these rooms 9^th July 2004 lot 37. The same thick walled cast with evidence of fine sprew ends, the treatment to the body with hammered surface, raised nipples and finely tapering fingers are all comparable as well as the tousled hair and indeed the urn inkwell which is so close to that held by Pan.  In 1998 Jeremy Warren reattributed the figure of Pan listening to Echo to Desiderio da Firenze based on its close technical and stylistic similarities to the securely documented Voting Urn commissioned by the great Council of the Commune di Padua and now in the Museo Civico. As well as Pan the reattribution also encompassed a bronze figure of Mercury as well as another version of the present model with cornucopia candle holder but shell inkwell.
It was suggested as early as 1927 that Desiderio da Firenze worked and even trained in the workshop of Riccio but no documentary evidence has so far been discovered to substantiate this assertion. Warren proposed that he was working alongside Riccio in “a spirit of emulation”. The present bronze can be closely compared with another in the Frick Collection as well as one illustrated in the Quentin Collection, attributed in the catalogue to Francesco Segala.  Note also the satyr candlesticks formerly in the Germain Seligmann collection and illustrated by Planiscig as well as one in the Quentin Collection which both have a foliate cache-sexe which the present bronze may originally very well have had.

RELATED LITERATURE
L. Planiscig,  Riccio, Vienna, 1927, pp.343- 346, fig 419; J. Pope-Hennessy, & A. Radcliffe, The Frick Collection , Vol.III, New York 1970, p.81 and 87; M. Leithe-Jasper, Renaissance Master Bronzes from the Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Washington, 1986, no.20, pp.110-112; J. Warren, “The Faun who Plays on the Pipes”, in  Small Bronzes in the Renaissance, New Haven and London, 2001, no. 17, pp.81-103; M. Leither-Jasper & P.Wengraf, European Bronzes from the Quentin Collection, ex.cat New York Sept 2004-Jan 2005, cat. 5, pp.90-97