Patinated bronze toad - Northen Italy 16th/17th century

Patinated bronze toad, veneto-padouan school from the north of Italie. End of the 16th century-beginning of the 17th century.

This little bronze toad eating a worm is a good exemple of the evolution of the animals representations during the italian renaissance. During the 16th century, north italian studios, such as Andrea Riccio or Savero da Ravenna's, began to take the animal figure as the main subject of their work of art. Different animals were represented alone even through they have always been considered as secondary subjects.