Italian, Florence, second third 16th century

With Cyril Humphris, London, 1971;

From whom acquired by James Stafford, Dublin;

By whom sold in 2018

The present bronze of a seated man is a unicum, cast from a consequently lost wax model, which was melted in the process of the direct casting technique.

The malleable nature of wax made it an ideal medium for the sculptor, enabling him to model, within a short time, an initial three-dimensional study in the creative process of a new composition. As a response to the fragility of the material, the direct lost wax casting technique was a perfect way to preserve such a bozzetto in a more durable material. Indeed, the unmatched softness of the modelled wax is perfectly preserved in the present bronze.

The twisting movement of the figure's entire body reveals the unmistakable influence of Michelangelo’s sculptural oeuvre. The bronze's anonymous sculptor gives here a tempered interpretation of the Florentine master’s allegorical figure of Day, conceived for the tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici (San Lorenzo, Florence, circa 1519–34). It also recalls, in both technique and composition, a fragmentary bronze of a Male torso, cast by Alessandro Cesati circa 1530–40, after a wax model by Michelangelo (Museo Nazionale del Bargello, inv. no. 32m). Undoubtedly, beyond the models of the Florentine Cinquecento, the fully rotational movement of the present bronze also draws upon antique models such as the Belvedere Torso (Musei Vaticani, Rome, inv. no. 1192).

Among comparable reclining male nudes, which flourished in Florence during the same period, one should mention Bartolomeo Ammannati’s bronze figures, seated on a precarious balance along the border of the basin of the Fountain of Neptune, Piazza della Signoria (circa 1560-75). Another famous example is the figure of Neptune on Benvenuto Cellini’s Salt cellar, made in the early 1540s for François I, King of France (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. no. KK 881).

Another interesting parallel is found in the bronze figure of a Seated Man, of which two examples are known, one in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Brunswick (inv. no. Bro 40), the other in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 66.177). The authorship of this model was previously ascribed to leading sculptors, including Adriaen de Vries, Benvenuto Cellini, Bartolomeo Ammannati and Jacopo Sansovino, who were all connected to the Florentine artistic milieu, dominated by the seminal influence of Michelangelo.

The Brunswick example was listed in 18th-century inventories of Herzog Antoin Ulrich’s collection as 'Jupiter in a pose as if he were seated upon his eagle'. The subject of the present bronze is similarly uncertain. It could possibly represent a preparatory work for a reclining figure of a river god, or alternatively a representation of Neptune seated upon his chariot drawn by sea horses, tightly grasping in one hand the now-missing reins and, in the other, the trident, likewise lost.

RELATED LITERATURE

A. Callegari, 'Il Palazzo Garzoni in Pontecasale', in Dedalo, no. 6, 1925-26, pp. 582–83, 588–90; H. R. Weihrauch, Europaïsche Bronzestatuetten. 15.-18. Jahrundert, Braunschweig, 1967, pp. 188-190; C. Avery, 'La cera sempre aspetta : wax Sketch – models for sculpture', in Apollo, CXIX, 1984, pp. 166-176; V. Krahn (ed.), Von allen Seiten schön. Bronzen der Renaissance und des Barock, exh. cat. Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, 1996, pp. 278-79, no. 75; Italian Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2022, pp. 301-304