Oliver Cornish
Sale Coordinator for Furniture, Sculpture, Rugs & Tapestries
Lot 89*,TP
Tommaso Rues (Venice, 1636-1703): A carved marble bust of PlutoLate 17th century
3 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£15,000 - £20,000
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Helena Gumley
Head of Sale Carpets and Tapestries
Tommaso Rues (Venice, 1636-1703): A carved marble bust of Pluto
Late 17th century
The bearded god modelled full face, his head with pointed crown, turned gently to dexter, a loose robe around his shoulders, 52cm high, 42cm wide, 19cm deep
The bearded god modelled full face, his head with pointed crown, turned gently to dexter, a loose robe around his shoulders, 52cm high, 42cm wide, 19cm deep
Footnotes
Provenance
Sotheby's, London, Old Master Sculpture & Works of Art, 4 December, 2018, Lot 97.
Rues was regarded as one of the leading Venetian sculptures of the 17th century. Once of his most prominent works -his groups of the Evangelists and Old Testament heroines, can still be found at the church of Santa Maria della Salute -at the opening of the Grand Canal in Venice. Rues worked for a number of European royalty, most notably the Duke of Saxony and the Prince of Ratzwill.
The present lot is comparable with a number of Rues' male subjects including the Prophets from the altar of the Madonna del Rosario di San Domenico in Brescia -these can now be found in Brompton Oratory, South Kensington. The head of St Paul from the church of San Pantalon is the most obvious comparable -so much so that one could be mistaken for thinking the two works derive from the same model.
Related Literature
P. Rossi, 'Per un profilo di Tommaso Rues,' in G. Pavanello (ed.), La scultura veneta del seicento e del settecento: Nuovi Studi, Venice, 2002;
M. Clemente, 'Tommaso Rues: contributo al catalogo,' Zbornik za umetnostno zgodovino (Nova vrsta), 49, 2013;
M. Clemente, Tommaso Rues 1636-1703: A German Sculptor in Baroque Venice, Florence, 2016
We would like to thank Maichol Clemente for his kind help and assistance in cataloguing this lot.