Michael Lake
Head of Department
Lot 11
A large late 15th / early 16th century bronze figural group of Venus and Cupidformerly attributed to Johann Gregor van der Schardt (Flemish, circa 1530-ater 1581), or Jérôme Duquesnoy Jr. (Flemish, 1602-1654), circa 1570-1640
Amended
21 November 2018, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £15,000 inc. premium
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A large late 15th / early 16th century bronze figural group of Venus and Cupid
formerly attributed to Johann Gregor van der Schardt (Flemish, circa 1530-ater 1581), or Jérôme Duquesnoy Jr. (Flemish, 1602-1654), circa 1570-1640
the nude goddess standing in contrapposto looking to sinister, her hands above the infant Cupid, the separately cast putto gesticulating up at her, dark brown mottled and lacquered patina, raised on a later polished wood circular shallow plinth base, 41cm high, 45cm high including base
the nude goddess standing in contrapposto looking to sinister, her hands above the infant Cupid, the separately cast putto gesticulating up at her, dark brown mottled and lacquered patina, raised on a later polished wood circular shallow plinth base, 41cm high, 45cm high including base
Footnotes
Provenance:
A.C.J. Wall collection, Middleton Park, Oxon.
This unpublished group of Venus and Cupid is related to a series of other known examples with a female figure standing in a similar position to that of Venus, but in a variety of different contexts, which leads to a complex situation with regard to the attribution of the original composition as follows:
I)
In a group with the two figures integrally cast with a large dolphin, doubled up beneath their feet to act as a fountain, once in the Farnese collection in Parma and now in the Capodimonte Museum, Naples. It has been connected (H. R. Weihrauch, Europäischen Bronzestatuetten, Braunschweig, 1967, pp. 324-25, fig. 394) with an item noted in his account book by Willibald Imhoff of Nuremburg in 1572, a model by 'Jan de Zara' (i.e. J. G. van der Schardt) of 'a woman with the child, representing Maritime Fortune'. The sculptor had also executed portraits in polychrome terracotta of Imhoff and his wife (Berlin).
II)
In another series of statuettes she is shown with a sea-snail shell extended in her right hand and resting her weight on a tree-stump at the opposite side. An example of this was shown in a painting of 1652 by David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690), standing high up on top of a wooden doorway or cupboard, in the collection of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels, when Governor of the Spanish Netherlands (both statuette and painting are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). It stands on an integrally cast square plinth, which accounts for its greater height than the present figure of 49.2cm.
This model has been attributed to Jérôme Duquesnoy Jr., who was the Archduke's court-sculptor, independently by Leithe-Jasper and Avery (M. Leithe-Jasper, Renaissance Master Bronzes from the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1986, pp. 274-76).
Some other examples are: Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst; formerly New York, Washington, Arthur M. Sackler Collection, sold Sotheby's, New York, 29 January 2010, lot 459; Toledo, Ohio, Museum of Art).
III)
A nearly identical, but more lightly cast, bronze of Venus appeared on the art market a little before 2010 with the initials, 'F.F.F.', of Francesco Fanelli (1577- after 1657), but there is no particular reason to suppose that it was he who invented the composition.
If this were the case, then clearly Weihrauch's attribution to Van der Schardt in 1572 would fall by the wayside.
With the emergence of the present particularly attractive figural group, further study may therefore elucidate the situation.
Saleroom notices
The full footnote for A.C.J. Wall and Middleton Park is as follows: A.C.J. Wall, who was a successful business man born in Sutton Coldfield near Birmingham, amassed a significant collection of English 18th century furniture in conjunction with an impressive array of ceramics, gold boxes, silver, painting, works of art and Chinese porcelain. Wall housed his collection at Middleton Park, in Oxfordshire, which was the home he bought in 1946. Middleton Park During the 17th century a castle, which had in fact been built in the reign of King Stephen (1135-1154) within the proximity of the current Middleton Park, was purchased by John Harman of Taynton. John Harman's son then oversaw the construction of a mansion on the present day site of Middleton. Subsequently one of his descendants, called Edmund Denton, sold the property in 1711 to the Honourable Henry Boyle, who was a cousin to the renowned Earl of Burlington. After various other owners and architectural alterations, including a period during the mid-18th century when Middleton Park was under the tenure of William Villiers, the 3rd Earl of Jersey, the 19th century version of the house with its stone facade was ultimately demolished in the early 20th century. Following that, the celebrated architect Sir Edwin Lutyens was responsible for the building which still stands at Middleton today. Lutyens, who both designed and oversaw the construction of the current house during the period 1934-8, seemingly modelled it on great classical architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries, very much in keeping with the contents of its interior. See www.bonhams.com for online interior photograph of the present lot in situ at Middleston Park.