Workshop of Severo Calzetta da Ravenna (active from 1496 to 1543), Padua or Ravenna, first half of the 16th century

Emma Budge collection (1852 - 1937), Hamburg;

Forced sale of the Emma Budge estate, Paul Graupe, Berlin, 27-29 September 1937, lot 137;

Robert Strauss collection;

His sale, Christie's London, 3 May 1977, lot 101;

Cyril Humphris, London;

His sale, Sotheby's New York, 10 January 1995, lot 19.

This lot is sold pursuant to a settlement agreement between the current owner and the heirs of Emma Budge. 

P. M. de Winter, 'Recent Acquisitions of Italian Renaissance Decorative Arts, Part I: Incorporating Notes on the Sculptor Severo da Ravenna', in The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 73, no. 3, 1986, pp. 74-138, p. 114, fig. 102.

The precision and quality of finish of the present bronze, of which there are numerous known variations, justify the attribution of the casting to the workshop of Severo Calzetta da Ravenna. Along with Andrea Riccio, his name is associated with the valuable production of Renaissance bronze statuettes in northern Italy at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries.

In 1986, Patrick M. de Winter published this example of the Striding Satyr in a seminal article on the work of this sculptor, who was active in Padua, Ferrara and Ravenna (P. M. de Winter, op. cit., p. 114, fig. 102). The author draws an interesting parallel between the stance of the satyr and that of another in the background of an engraving by Mantegna, Bacchanal with a Wine Vat, circa 1475 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. 1986.1159). The composition can also be compared to Greco-Roman models such as the Della Valle Satyr in Rome (Musei Capitolini, inv. MC0004). Another example of the same model is in Brescia (Musei Civici, inv. no. BR136), another in La Spezia (Museo Civico, inv. no. B196), another in Rome (Museo di Palazzo Venezia, inv. no. 9243), and yet another, of comparable quality, was in the Yves Saint Laurent – Pierre Bergé collections (their sale, Christie's Paris, 25 February 2009, lot 484, described as attributed to Severo da Ravenna).

The modern history of this bronze, from the collection of Emma Budge (1852–1937), a German Jewish art lover and philanthropist, bears witness to the darkest hours of the 20th century in Europe. Originally from Hamburg, Emma married Henry (Heinrich) Budge (1840–1928), a German banker who emigrated to the United States and whose fortune was linked to the development of the railways. She left Germany for New York, where the couple settled in a house near Central Park. Returning to Hamburg in 1900, the Budges' villa became a cultural and social hub of the city, as well as a sanctuary for their extensive collection of European art. Emma and Henry were also renowned for their strong commitment to German charitable institutions, particularly in the fields of education and the arts.

When Emma died in 1937, although her will stipulated that the sale of her property should benefit Jewish charities, her collection was looted by the Nazi regime and auctioned in Berlin that same year, from 27 to 29 September. As the proceeds from this sale were never handed over to the rightful beneficiaries, the spoliation of the collection was officially recognised in 1947, and steps were taken to return it to the Budge heirs. An annotated copy of the catalogue of the 1937 forced sale, in National Art Library of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, is an invaluable source of information on the fate of the looted works in the collection. The present bronze, lot 137 of the Budge sale, was then attributed, without any basis, to Francesco Bertos.

This lot is sold pursuant to a settlement agreement between the current owner and the heirs of Emma Budge.