TOMASSO: The More a Thing is Perfect

TOMASSO: The More a Thing is Perfect

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 24. Architecture.

After Giambologna (1529-1608), Italian, 18th/ 19th century

Architecture

Lot Closed

April 29, 01:24 PM GMT

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

After Giambologna (1529-1608)

Italian, 18th/ 19th century

Architecture


bronze

36 cm., 14¼ in.

The allegorical figure of Architecture is identified by the protractor, set-square and dividers held in the seated woman’s right hand, the plumb line repurposed as a necklace and the drawing-board delicately supported by her left hand. Despite the existence of a signed small bronze in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. no. 40.23) and a large marble in the Bargello (inv. no. 261 S), formerly in the Boboli Gardens, the model is not actually documented during Giambologna’s lifetime. The first mention of it is in the collection of Markus Zeh at Augsburg in 1611: ‘Una donna a sedere che rappresenta l’architettura’ (‘A woman seated who represents Architecture’). Therefore, the circumstances around the commissioning of the marble, if it is an autograph Giambologna - it is first mentioned only in 1789 - are not known. The signature and the exceptional casting of the Boston bronze identify it as a lifetime production. One important detail that distinguishes the latter from many posthumous casts is the turned weight on the plumb line that pulls it down into a ‘V’ shape, a feature which is lost on later casts, even fine early casts such as the version recorded in the French royal collection in 1684 and given to the Bargello by Carrand (inv. no. 226 C). In these later casts the cross-piece of the set square is also invariably missing.


The present cast lacks both the weight on the plumb line / necklace and the cross-piece of the set square. The neat casting in the plaits of the hair, crisp eyelids and fingers suggest a dating in the late 18th century. As such, the bronze is a testament to the abiding popularity of Giambologna’s models.


RELATED LITERATURE

C. Avery and A. Radcliffe, Giambologna 1529-1608: Sculptor to the Medici, exh. cat. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1978, pp. 72-3, no. 17; B. Paolozzi Strozzi and D. Zikos (eds.), Giambologna gli dei, gli eroi, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, 2006, pp. 215-219