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Angels Carrying The Instruments Of The Passion, Venice Late 16th c
Angels Carrying The Instruments Of The Passion, Venice Late 16th c - Sculpture Style Renaissance Angels Carrying The Instruments Of The Passion, Venice Late 16th c - Angels Carrying The Instruments Of The Passion, Venice Late 16th c - Renaissance Antiquités - Angels Carrying The Instruments Of The Passion, Venice Late 16th c
Ref : 121345
11 000 €
Period :
<= 16th century
Provenance :
Italy
Medium :
Bronze
Dimensions :
H. 9.25 inch
Sculpture  - Angels Carrying The Instruments Of The Passion, Venice Late 16th c <= 16th century - Angels Carrying The Instruments Of The Passion, Venice Late 16th c Renaissance - Angels Carrying The Instruments Of The Passion, Venice Late 16th c Antiquités - Angels Carrying The Instruments Of The Passion, Venice Late 16th c
Galerie Sismann

European old master sculpture


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Angels Carrying The Instruments Of The Passion, Venice Late 16th c

Dressed in flowing antique-style tunics held at the shoulder by a knot, our two androgynous figures are depicted standing, one advancing with the left leg and the other with the right leg. Responding to each other in their pose and general attitude, the Angels each carry an instrument of the Passion: the column referring to the Flagellation of Christ and the purse containing the thirty silver coins symbolizing The Betrayal of Judas. It is permissible to imagine these statuettes inserted into a liturgical setting, perhaps decorating a balustrade or altar fence, or even a high altar. However, allegorical figures and personifications were also emblematic collectibles very popular in 16th and 17th century Venice, often chosen to enrich private collections and cabinets of curiosities. Indeed, this typology of works, cultivated and familiar, could be part of the lineage of small pleasure statuary for the amateur cabinet, developed in Italy and which spread widely from Florence thanks to the workshop of Giovanni Bologna (1529-1608). These religious or secular personifications were part of the traditional repertoire of Venetian sculptors of the Cinquecento, as can be seen in the productions of the famous bronze makers Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570), Tiziano Aspetti (1556/1557-1606) and Girolamo Campagna (1549-1625). The comparison of the style of our bronzes with that of Campagna and his workshop is possible in view of the formal and stylistic correspondences with the whole of his work. A renowned Venetian artist, trained in the workshop of Danese Cattaneo (1512-1572), Campagna developed a powerful and luminous sculpture, served by a particularly expressive technique. Inheriting from his master the taste for decorative detail, he knew how to combine, in a purely Venetian style, the ancient influences and those of northern Italy, already announcing, in his own way, the beginnings of Baroque art. In these figures coexist strength, freedom, power and grace as evidenced by our two Angels holding the Instruments of the Passion. The overall appearance of these two works, marked by a slight hip, a slender canon with broad thighs and pelvis, is comparable to many of Campagna's figures. Our angels also share many points of comparison with the physiognomies of the master; we indeed find similarities on the faces in the roundness of the features, the straight and short nose, the shape of the neck. The clearly drawn and heavy eyelids as well as the fleshy lips are also typical of the Master's work. These Angels with soft draperies illustrate the elegance, technical virtuosity as well as the taste for carnal forms and sophisticated hairstyles specific to Campagna as can be seen in his Apollo with the lyre preserved in the Bode Museum in Berlin (Inv. No. 2800). On the iconographic as well as stylistic level, a parallel is evident with a Pair of Angels carrying the Instruments of the Passion by Girolamo Campagna which once decorated the high altar of St. Lorenzo, dated from the years 1615-1618, today preserved in the Correr Museum in Venice. According to our research, our pair of bronzes would constitute the only version of this model recorded to date making these Angels carrying the Instruments of the Passion unpublished bronzes of a certain rarity. The discovery of these bronzes provides further testimony to the art of Girolamo Campagna, one of the most important sculptors of Venice, whose style embodies the apogee of Venetian Mannerism.

Galerie Sismann

CATALOGUE

Bronze Sculpture Renaissance