STONE: Marble and Hardstones
STONE: Marble and Hardstones
ITALIAN, PROBABLY ROME OR FLORENCE, CIRCA 17TH CENTURY | BUST OF A SATYR
Auction Closed
December 4, 11:48 AM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
ITALIAN, PROBABLY ROME OR FLORENCE, CIRCA 17TH CENTURY
BUST OF A SATYR
porphyry and Alabastro a tartaruga from Montauto, Tuscany (also referred to as Jano di Montauto alabaster), on an associated later serpentino marble socle
bust: 52cm., 20½in.
socle: 12cm., 4¾in
Related Literature
G. Bresc-Bautier (ed.), Les sculptures européennes du musée du Louvre, cat. Louvre, Paris, 2006, p. 280; F. Martin, 'Price and Provenance: Observations on Three (More of Less) Classical Busts from the Chigi and Vendramin Collections in Dresden,' in C. Miner (ed.), The Eternal Baroque: Studies in Honour of Jennifer Montagu, London, 2015; G. Extermann and A. V. Braga, Splendor marmoris: I colori del marmo, tra roma e l'Europa da Paolo III a Napoleone III, Rome, 2016; D. Del Bufalo, Porphyry: Red Imperial Porphyry. Power and Religion, Turin, 2018
Many of the most prized sculptures to have survived from antiquity are made of Imperial Porphyry. The rarity and significance of sculptures carved from this dense igneous stone was well understood in the Middle Ages, as was evidenced when the famous Portrait of Four Tetrarchs (circa 300 C.E.) was embedded as spolia in the walls of St Mark's Basilica in Venice following the Sack of Constantinople in 1204. However, it was in the 16th and 17th centuries that Porphyry again became particularly sought after by the greatest connoisseurs and was incorporated into major sculptural commissions. Ancient porphyry figures formed the cornerstone of the famous collection amassed by Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1587-1633) in the first decades of the 17th century. These include two masterpieces of Roman sculpture which were restored by leading contemporary sculptors: the celebrated Captive Barbarian (2nd century C.E. with restorations by Pietro Bernini (1562-1629); today, Louvre, Paris, inv. no. MR 332) and the Femme en prère (2nd century C.E., with 17th-century restorations by Vincenzo Moretto and 18th-century restorations by Vincenzo Pacetti; also Louvre, Paris inv. no. MR 67). The first decades of the 17th century saw a particular interest in the use of coloured stones in sculpture, a phenomenon exemplified by the work of the French born Roman sculptor, Nicolas Cordier (1567-1612). The present bust of a faun is likely to have been carved in the 17th century, when sculptors either reused ancient fragments or, as in the present case, sought to create sculptures which recalled antiquities. The carving of the porphyry head particularly recalls 17th-century busts in the highly polished face contrasted with the (in this case roughly hewn) matte hair. Compare, for example, with a 17th-century Roman bust of Don Juan Jose of Austria (1629-1679) in the Louvre (inv. no. CH M 12). It is a remarkable fact that virtually all surviving Imperial Porphyry, including the head of the present satyr, will have been quarried by convicts or slaves in the baking Egyptian heat in antiquity.