Giacomo Zoffoli (1731-1785) Italian, Rome, second half 18th century After the Antique

The bronze with minor scratches, dirty and slightly wavered on the edges. Otherwise the condition is good.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This fine bronze is taken from one of the most celebrated antique models, the Arrotino, of which the original is in the Museo degli Uffizi, Florence (Haskell and Penny, op. cit. pp. 154-7, no.11). The Arrotino is widely held to represent the Scythian executioner, whetting his blade in preparation for the flaying of Marsyas, following the satyr's doomed music contest with Apollo. Acquired by Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici in 1578, it was eventually installed in the Tribuna of the Uffizi in 1688, after a sojourn in the Villa Medici, Rome. Haskell and Penny confirm that the Zoffoli foundry made reductions of the model. Giacomo Zoffoli and his successor, Giovanni (probably Giacomo's nephew), owned one of the main foundries in 18th-century Rome. They specialised in bronzes after the antique, catering to demand from visiting foreign aristocrats on the Grand Tour. Bronzes cast by the Zoffoli foundry are recorded as having been in the collections of the Prince Regent at Carlton House, Lord Boringdon at Saltram House, and Hugh, 2nd Duke of Northumberland at Syon House (Wilton and Bignamini, op. cit. p. 280). The signature on the present bronze is almost identical to that seen on a bronze Agrippina, published by Hugh Honour (Honour, op. cit. p. 198, fig. 1).

RELATED LITERATURE
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique. The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1800, pp. 154-7, no.11; A. Wilton and I Bignamini (eds.) Grand Tour. The Lure of Italy in the Eighteenth Century, exhib. cat. Tate Gallery, London, 1996, pp. 280-1, nos. 235-7; H. Honour, 'Bronze statuettes', The Connoisseur, Nov 1961, DXCVII, pp. 198-205