Suite of Four bronze fittings - Roccatagliata

Four bronze fittings

Bronze
Venice – early 17th Century
Niccolò Roccatagliata (active 1593-1636) (and workshop)
Provenance: Italian private collection, bought in Sotheby’s London, 9th December 1988, lot 168 and 169.

H 36 x W 21 cm. (slightly different one from the other)
H 39,5 cm (on socle)

H 14 1/8 x W 8 1/4 inch
H 15 1/2 inch (on socle)

These sumptuous bronzes would have once adorned a larger ornamental object, such as a paschal candlestick or a well-head. Formed of lions rampant flanking cartouches enclosing the Lion of Saint Mark, they are undoubtedly of Venetian origin. The putto masks in particular bear the hallmarks of the Roccatagliata workshop, led first by Nicolò Roccatagliata and, after his death in 1629, his son, Sebastiano Nicolini. Their heavy eyelids, retroussé noses, and prominent forelocks compare closely to two Putti from the tabernacle in San Giorgio in Braida, Verona. Illustrated in Krvza-Gersch. op. cit. 1998. figs. 215 and 216. For a similar decorative scheme with scrolls and foliate elements, see the candelabrum by Nicolò in San Giorgio maggiore (1596. Krvza Gersch. op. cit. 1998, fig 195) and the candelabrum by Sebastiano in San Giovanni e Paolo, Venice (1631-1633., ibid., fig. 206).

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Kryza-Gersch, 'New Light on Nicolò Roccatagliata and his son Sebastian Nicolini', Nuovi Studi, vol. 5, 1998, anno III, pp. 111-126 and pls. 192-230; C. Kryza-Gersch, 'Due altari seicenteschi a San Marco: Nicolò Roccatagliata e Sebastiano Nicolini, e la produzione di ornamenti in bronze per le chiese veneziane', in M. Ceriana and V. Avery (eds.), L'Industria artistica del bronzo del Rinascimento a Venezia e nell'Italia settentrionale, Verona, 2008, pp. 253-272.