A bronze doorknocker with the arms of the Pigatti family, Venice, early 17th Century

Sotheby's London, Old Master Sculpture and Works of Art, 7 December 2010, Lot. 51

N. Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 1540 to the present day, vol I, Oxford 1992, n. 179, p. 243, ill.

This is one of the finest Venetian door knockers to have appeared on the market in recent years. It is exceptional for the survival of the lion face wall mount into which the iron fixing for the door knocker itself sits. It still preserves the arms of the Pigatti family in the gilded cartouche.

Sebastian Nicolini was the son of Nicolò Roccatagliata. Father and son worked together and the differentiation between them can often be complex. This particularly fine door knocker can be compared to Roccatagliata's St George in San Giorgio Maggiore, however, the more playful approach between the soldier and the lion would suggest more the authorship of Nicolini. Affinities in the treatment can be found in the candlestick made for San Giovanni e Paolo (1631-1633) by Nicolini in association with Andrea Balbi.

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Kryza-Gersch, 'Due altari seicenteschi a San Marco: Nicolò Roccatagliata e Sebastiano Nicolini, e la produzione di ornamenti in bronzo per le chiese veneziane', in Matteo Ceriana and Victoria Avery (eds.), L'industria artistica del bronzo del Rinascimento a Venezia e nell'Italia settentrionale, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Venezia, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 23 e 24 ottobre 2007, Verona 2008, pp. 253-272;

C. Kryza-Gersch, 'New Light on Nicolò Roccatagliata and His Son Sebastian Nicolini', in Nuovi Studi, vol. V, 1998, pp. 111-126.