Important European Terracotta & Bronze Sculpture from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

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Lot 402
  • 402

Workshop of Severo da Ravenna

Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 USD
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Description

  • Severo da Ravenna
  • Thetis
  • bronze
  • height 7 3/8 in; 18.6 cm
golden olive patina beneath dark reddish-brown lacquer, on later rectangular veined alabaster socle

Provenance

Cyril Humphris, London

Catalogue Note

RELATED LITERATURE

Weihrauch 1967, pp. 133-135, figs. 155-6; Wixom 1975, no. 80; Krahn 2003, p. 94

The present model, also called 'Atalanta', was formerly attributed to Maffeo Olivieri based on a comparison with a pair of candlesticks presented to the Basilica of San Marco, Venice in 1527 which incorporates similarly contorted and running figures.

However, Weihrauch (op. cit.) noted that 'Thetis' is more closely related to an engraving by Gian Giacomo Caraglio depicting Thetis in a niche, dating from after his arrival in Venice in 1526/7 and made after a drawing by Rosso Fiorentino who was also in Venice as the guest of Pietro Aretino in 1530. In this drawing, the goddess upholds an upturned urn pouring water as she flees from her suitors, Neptune and Jupiter.

Scholars have subsequently firmly attributed this and related statuettes to Severo Calzetta da Ravenna and his workshop. Severo was active in Padua from 1496 to 1525 and produced small figures and objects in bronze for his humanist patrons.