Important Old Master Paintings & Sculpture

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Lot 401
  • 401

A pair of Italian bronze candlebearing putti, from the workshop of Nicolò Roccatagliata (active 1593–circa 1636), late 16th/early 17th century, Venice

Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • bronze
red-gold lacquer beneath greenish black patina, upon stepped marble bases with later bronze plinths.

Provenance

Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, March 26, 1970, lot 193

Literature

M. H. Schwartz (ed.), European Sculpture from the Abbott Guggenheim Collection, New York, 2008, no. 56, pp. 116-117

Catalogue Note

The animated curls, plump cheeks, and theatrical poses of this lively pair of putti are the unmistakable products of the Venetian workshop of Nicolò Roccatagliata.  A related pair of music-playing putti are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (see M. Leithe-Jasper, Renaissance Master Bronzes from the Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1986, nos. 47-48, pp. 185-187).