After a model by Medardo Rosso

on green variegated marble base

Sir Kenneth Clark Collection, 1930; Stanley Moss, New York; Cyril Humphris, London

Detroit 1985, cat. no. 26

Seymour 1949, p. 175, no. 17; Janson 1957, p. 22, no. 4; Nicholson, 1959, p. 207; Pope-Hennessey 1959, ed. 1968, pp. 65-71; Berlin 1966, p. 89, no. 498; Seymour, 1966, p. 235, no. 21; Schlegel 1968, p. 244-258; Herzner 1982, pp. 120-123; Boucher 1986, p. 67; Krahn 2009, p. 47, note 31

Standard surface abrasions. Very minor casting flaws. Tiny hole on his back. Minor abrasions to base.
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RELATED LITERATURE

Bode and Draper 1980, pl. V

The present model is derived from a bronze in the Bode Skulpturensammlung in Berlin which has been recently reattributed.  Volker Krahn, in the June 2009 issue of Apollo, has convincingly argued that the Berlin statuette is not, as had been previously supposed, after a model by Donatello but is rather a playful work by the great 19^th century Impressionist sculptor Medardo Rosso.  When Wilhelm von Bode acquired it for the Kaiser Freidrich Museum in 1894, it was celebrated as a cast of the wax bozzetto for the marble David from the Palazzo Martinelli, then attributed to Donatello (now in the National Gallery in Washington, attributed to Bernardo or Antonio Rossellino). Included in the 1887 exhibition held in Florence to mark the 500^th anniversary of Donatello's birth, the Berlin David was then widely published in the Donatello literature throughout much of the 20^th century.  Discussions about its authenticity stemmed from the confusing relationship to the marble and the unusual texture which is highly inconsistent with Renaissance sensibility.

On the basis of photos from Rosso's studio, which show another version of the David, as well as Rosso's documented history of studying and copying the works of Renaissance masters, Krahn exposes that the Berlin statuette is at best a tribute to the Renaissance master, and more likely a mischievous forgery.  Rosso seems to have been deliberately competing with the masters he admired, and challenging his audience much in the same way Michelangelo did in passing off his Sleeping Cupid as antique.

Krahn notes the present version in his article but points out that it displays variations from the Berlin bronze and a plaster version which survives in the Museo Medardo Rosso in Barzio, particularly in the handling of the faces and in its generally smoother texture; in recent discussions upon examination of detailed photos of the present bronze he has noted that it is likely not the work of Rosso himself.