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Possibly by Willem van den Broeck, called Guglielmus Paludanus, Italo-Flemish (c. 1520-1579)
A circular bronze plaquette of Vertumnus and Pomona, or Vanity
A circular bronze plaquette of Vertumnus and Pomona, or Vanity
Sold for £1,680 inc. premium
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Find your local specialistPossibly by Willem van den Broeck, called Guglielmus Paludanus, Italo-Flemish (c. 1520-1579)
A circular bronze plaquette of Vertumnus and Pomona, or Vanity
A circular bronze plaquette of Vertumnus and Pomona, or Vanity
Footnotes
Literature:
E.F. Bange, Die Bildwerke in Bronze..., II – Reliefs und Plaketten, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin / Leipzig, 1923, no. 1419); D. Banzato ad F. Pellegrini, Bronzi e Placchette dei Musei Civici di Padova, Padua, 1989, no. 89 I; Weber, Deutsche, Niederlandische and Französiche Renaissance Plaketten, Munich, 1975, no. 985.
This is a finely cast and un-pierced example of a plaquette known in about a dozen examples. Vertumnus was a Roman deity who presided over the spring and orchards, who - after many failed attempts to attract her - disguised himself as a hag to gain the confidence of Pomona, goddess of fruits and fruit trees. The scene also lends itself to an interpretation as Vanitas, a warning that the beauty of the kneeling maiden will eventually be disfigured by old age.
The kneeling girl is derived from a larger, oval plaque, in which she appears alone, with her elbow resting on a cushion and her spread loosely, like a Venus Anadyomene, following the well-known type of ancient marble statue (Weber, no. 986).
Hitherto anonymous, the female beauty in these compositions seem to correspond well with the style of Paludanus, particularly with his cabinet-sized, alabaster statuettes of Venus and Cupid, signed and dated 1559, and Geometry and Astrology, dated 1569 (see C. Avery, Giambologna: the Complete Sculpture, Oxford, 1987, pp. 50-51, pls. 47, 50). Like the relief with a Running Stag (Lot 00), this plaquette may thus be a rare example of his work being replicated in bronze for the emerging collectorly market in the mercantile centre of Antwerp and the court circles of Malines and Brussels.
























