Attributed to Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi (1656-1740) After a model by Alessandro Algardi (1598-1654) Italian, Florence, circa 1700

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)

J. Montagu, Alessandro Algardi, New Haven and Yale, 1985, vol. ii, p. 417, no. 134.C.3

Overall the condition of the bronze is very good with some wear and dirt to the surface consistent with age. There is an area with some minor green pigment to the surface around the lower edge on the reverse. There are a few minor nicks around the standing putto's proper left hand. There is a small loss to the lacquer at the proper left side of Charity's neck. There are a few minor nicks and scratches around the lower edge.
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The earliest mention of a Carità by Alessandro Algardi is made by the great Florentine Baroque sculptor Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi in a letter to the Prince of Liechtenstein on 23 March 1694/5, in which he writes: si trova qui una figura dell'Algardi che rappresenta una Carità, con i tre Putti, che uno è al Petto, e gl'altri due a i piedi, adattati con bella maniera, e questa figura è tutto rilievo e alta due palmi e mezzo (here is a figure by Algardi representing Charity, with three putti, one at her chest, the other two at her feet, adapted in a beautiful manner, and the figure is very important and is two and a half feet high) (Lankheit, op. cit., doc. 637). Significantly, Soldani later offered the Prince a bronze cast of Algardi's model for the sum of 80 Florentine piastre. However, the work was subsequently postponed and no mention is made to the bronze in the correspondence between Algardi and the Prince thereafter (Montagu, op. cit., p. 417). Montagu suggests that, whilst it is unknown whether Soldani ever sent such a bronze to the Prince, he clearly possessed a cast from which he could copy the model and that it is likely he produced bronzes from it for other clients.

The attribution of the model to Algardi is strengthened by 18th-century references to a Carità by the sculptor. The Bolognese patron Marcello Oretti (1714-1787) describes Una Femina con trè Puttini di tutto tondo di terra cotta fatta da Alessandro Algardi per modello della statua, che è in Roma sopra il Battisterio della Chiesa di ... in Roma, è veramente un bellissimo rilievo' (a female with three putti made in terracotta in the round by Alessandro Algardi for the model of a statue in Rome upon the Baptistry of the church of ... in Rome, it is a beautiful relief) (Oretti, as quoted by Montagu, op. cit., p. 416). Montagu argues that the model discussed by Soldani and Oretti can be identified with the present composition and that 'an attribution [to Algardi] ... is fully justified on stylistic grounds' (Montagu, op. cit., p. 416). She notes that the woman's oval head and diminutive facial features recall the Ludovisi Athena, which Algardi restored in the 1620's. A commission for four statues to adorn the Catafalque of Carlo Barberini may, she tentatively suggests, have led to the genesis of the model, though there is no contemporary documentation to lend weight to this theory (Montagu, op. cit., p. 416).

The present bronze is a particularly fine cast, with a beautiful patina with gold and rose undertones. Montagu observes that it has 'a finely worked surface, with punching in the hair and neat lines of striation on the undergarment' (Montagu, op. cit., p. 417). Note, in particular, the chasing of the eyelids and lips. The characteristic Florentine patina would indicate that the bronze has a Tuscan provenance, whilst the excellent quality of the finish compares with bronzes by Soldani. This attribution is lent credence by the presence of letters described above in which the sculptor states his intention to make a cast of the present model.

Further bronzes after Algardi's Carità exist: in the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh (inv. no. 1867.44.I); the Musei Civici, Museo Schifanoia, Ferrara (inv. no. C.G.F.8512); formerly in the Franzone collection, Genoa; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. A4.1961); formerly with Antichità Luzzetti; Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (inv. no. LL122. HH 147); and formerly in the Antonio d'Amico Moretti collection, Rome.

RELATED LITERATURE
K. Lankheit, Florentinische Barockplastik: die Kunst am Hofe der letzten Medici, 1670-1743, Munich, 1962, doc. 637; C. Avery, 'Soldani's Small Bronze Statuettes after 'Old Masters' Sculptures in Florence,' K. Lankheit, Kunst des Barock in der Toskana. Studien zur Kunst unter den letzten Medici, Munich, 1976, pp. 165-172;J. Montagu, Alessandro Algardi, New Haven and Yale, 1985, vol. ii, pp. 416-418