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Lot 37

A unusual patinated bronze model of a rearing stallion cast after the model by Giovanni Bologna (Italian, 1529-1608) and Antonio Susini (Italian, active 1572-1624)
late 17th or 18th century, possibly Spanish

Amended
Important Design
5 April 2017, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

£7,000 - £10,000

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A unusual patinated bronze model of a rearing stallion cast after the model by Giovanni Bologna (Italian, 1529-1608) and Antonio Susini (Italian, active 1572-1624)

late 17th or 18th century, possibly Spanish
the horse with flared nostrils and curled mane and tail, dark brown patina, mounted on a second quarter 19th century ebonised and amaranth inlaid satin birch moulded rectangular plinth base, the bronze, 30cm high, with base, 37cm high

Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection of a West Country antique and fine art dealer and probably acquired sometime in the post war period.
Thence by family descent.

The theme of the wild rearing horse became the favoured subject matter of animalier sculptors in bronze in Italy and Northern Europe in the late 16th and 17th century. Probably influenced initially by the abandoned equestrian monument which had been conceived by Leonardo, it was taken on by a number of sculptors including Francesco Fanelli, Pietro Tacca and Barthelemy Prieur illustrating both diverse and more subtle interpretations in terms of the artistic rendering.

The current lot undoubtedly bears similarities to perhaps the most famous of these interpretations, that of Giambologna's 'Rearing Stallion' cast by Antonion Susinsi in Florence in the late 16th or early 17th century. Baldinuccci had mentioned in his 1688 list of models by Giovanni Bologna, a bronze model of 'II Cavallino, che sta in du due piedi (the little horse that stands on two feet)' but possible comparable casts of the model were not positively identified until 1978 when a number of models were offered for sale on the art market. Bologna is known to have also modelled in stucco a quadriga with rearing horses for one of the triumphal arches made for the entrance of Joanna of Austrian into Florence in 1565 and he also made his first documented cast of 'Nessus and Deianira' in bronze which is closely related to the 'Rearing Stallion' ten years later.

Rearing horse models was particularly popular in Germany where bronze horses were often used together with other domestic and exotic animals for domestic fountains and many of these were cast in Augsburg in the later 16th and early 17th century. The theme was also extremely popular for decorative table bronzes and a number of German examples which lack visible arteries on the abdomen and/or creases on the neck are characteristic of the features of rearing horse bronzes cast in Braunschweig and Stuttgart.

Although the current lot similarly does not show visible arteries and neck creases, the substantial weight of the unusual sold cast of the horse which has to be supported by its curling tail as opposed to its hind legs (as is the case of majority of its comparables) possibly suggests a different origin and could be an indication that this horse may be of Spanish rather than German origin.

Related Literature
Anthony Radcliffe & Nicholas Penny, Art of the Renaissance Bronze, 1500-1650, The Robert H. Smith Collection, 2004 Philip Wilson, fig. 27, p. 172-175.

Saleroom notices

Please note this cast is probably 17th / 18th century.

Additional information

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