North Italian, 16th century

With J & S Goldschmidt, 30 December 1929.

With Henry Janssen;

The Estate of Helen Janssen-Wetzel;

New York, Sotheby's Parke-Bernet, 28-29 November 1980, lot 94;

The Abbott Guggenheim Collection, New York;

Their sale, New York, Christie's, 28 January 2015, lot 3;

With Daniel Katz, Ltd., London, 2016;

From whom acquired by the late collector.

A. Gibbons, Guide des Bronzes de la Renaissance Italienne, Paris, 1990, no. 87.

M. Schwartz, ed., European Sculpture from the Abbott Guggenheim Collection, New York, 2008, p. 30, no. 6.

San Francisco, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Abbott Guggenheim Collection, 3 Mar. – 11 Sep. 1988, L. Camins ed., pp. 38-39, no. 9.

The present bronze statuette depicts a putto dancing, while holding two objects, perhaps stones, in each hand. It is possible that this bronze was once part of a set of four putti, each depicting the Elements, with the current sculpture representing Earth, signified by the presence of rocks or mud in his hands. A set of the elements, attributed to Niccolò Roccatagliata, is in the collection of Robert H. Smith. In Roccatagliata's rendition, Earth is also personified by a putto grasping "clod" in his hands, as Radcliffe and Penny describe it in their catalogue on the collection.¹

¹A. Radcliffe and N. Penny, Art of the Renaissance Bronze 1500 - 15650, the Robert H. Smith Collection, London 2004, pp. 112-115, cat. no. 18.