Attributed to Gianfrancesco Susini, After a Model by Giambologna, Italian, Florence, early 17th century

With Stuart Lochhead, Ltd., London;

Where acquired by the late collector.

The composition of this fine and delicatly finished bronze, showing a woman crouching, holding a cloth to her nude body while she glances up, was originally conceived by the Florentine mannerist sculptor Giambologna. Greatly influenced by the art of antiquity, Giambologna likely found inspiration for the present model in the Hellenistic Crouching Venus, which he would have encountered in Rome. Interpreted in this context, it is possible that this model was meant to represent a nymph interrupted at her bath by a satyr. A cast of this composition, given to the master himself, is in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence (accession number: 69).

Avery and Radcliffe posit that this model originated as early as the 1550s,¹ although the present composition varies slightly, with the addition of a further piece of drapery under the figure's knees. Another version of this model, with the additional drapery is in the Colonna Gallery, Rome. According to Avery and Hall, Jacopo Salviati originally commissioned the Colonna statuette from Gianfrancesco Suisini in circa 1630.²

The present cast, with its beautiful finish, including her detailed fingers and toes and her beautifully chased hair and diadem, bears the hallmarks of a master sculptor. Given the quality of the present bronze and the original Salviati commission, the present alluring sculpture has been given to Gianfrancesco Suisini and his workshop.

Gianfrancesco trained in the workshop of his uncle and fellow artist, Antonio Susini (1558-1624), who was Giambologna's (1529-1608) closest assistant. Upon Giambologna's death in 1608, Antonio opened his own workshop where he made bronzes after Giambologna's compositions. It was here that Gianfrancesco honed his craft and eventually carried on the family tradition: casting models after compositions by his uncle, Antonio, and Giambologna.

¹ C. Avery and A. Radcliffe, Giambologna: Sculptor to the Medici, exh. cat., London, 1978, p. 76, nos. 21 and 22

²C. Avery and M. Hall, Giambologna: An Exhibition of Sculpture by the Master and his Followers from the Collection of Michael Hall, Esq., Salander O'Reilly Galleries, New York 1998, cat. no. 9

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Avery, Giambologna, Oxford, 1987, pp. 54 - 56.