Workshop of Antonio Susini, Italian, Florence, early 17th century

With Daniel Katz, Ltd., London, 1998;

Where acquired by the late collector.

J. Auersperg, European Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, Daniel Katz Ltd., London 1998, cat. no. 20.

This model, depicting Cupid lovingly tending to Venus, was originally attributed to Antonio Susini by Avery and Radcliffe in their seminal 1978 Giambologna exhibition catalogue.¹ Another cast of this composition is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession number: 32.100.183) and was considered by Radcliffe to be of the quality and facture of signed bronzes by Susini. Few versions of this composition are known, with a third in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (accession number: no. A.150-1910), although the lack of details in the V&A bronze suggest that it was cast later.

Distinguished by its enchanting interaction between mother and son, the present composition appears to be an imaginative reworking of a model of Venus thought to have originated in the workshop of Giambologna (1529-1608). Very similar to the present composition but lacking the addition of Cupid, the Giambologna model shows only the goddess bathing or removing a thorn from her foot.² Versions of this composition, showing only Venus crouched down tending to her foot are in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon,³ the Staatliche Museen, Berlin,⁴ and the Liebeighaus, Frankfurt (accession number: St. P. 378). Consequently, this model of Venus is associated with a series of models representing bathing women, ascribed to Giambologna.

Radcliffe's attribution of the present composition to Susini is based in part to similarities between the Cupid seen here and the Christ-Child in his statuette of the Virgin and Child in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (accession number: 44.586).⁵ 

¹Giambologna, 1529-1608: Sculptor to the Medici, C. Avery and A. Radcliffe (eds.), exhibition catalogue Vienna, London, Edinburgh 1978, p. 67, nos. 10-11.

²Ibid., no. 8.

³ Ibid.

⁴W. Bode, The Art Collection of Mr. Alfred Beit at His Residence 26 Park Lane London, Berlin, 1904, p. 9, no. 281.

⁵Ibid., no. 92.

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Avery, Giambologna: The Complete Sculpture, Oxford, 1987, p. 79