An Italian bronze doorknocker, in the manner of Andrea Briosco, called 'Il Riccio' (1470-1532), probably 19th century

greenish-gold patina beneath black lacquer.

Sotheby's London, March 23, 1971, lot 57
Sotheby's London, December 16, 1971, lot 92
Weininger Collection, sold Christie's, New York, May 21, 1980, lot 192

San Francisco, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Abbott Guggenheim Collection, 3 March-11 September 1988, cat. no. 6

L. Camins, Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Abbott Guggenheim Collection, San Francisco, 1988, no. 6, pp. 29-31
C. Avery, Sculture : bronzetti, placchette, medaglie, Museo civico Amadeo Lia, La Spezia, 1998, pp.112-113
F. Scholten and M. Verber, From Vulcan's Forge: Bronzes from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1450-1800, Daniel Katz, Ltd., London, 2005, no. 7, pp. 40-41
M. H. Schwartz (ed.), European Sculpture from the Abbott Guggenheim Collection, New York, 2008, no. 9, p. 34

The present model is known in a number of variants dating from the 16th century and later (see Scholten and Verber, op. cit., for a list), the finest of which was given by Mr. and Mrs. Severance A. Millikin to the Cleveland Museum of Art (75.58).  The inventive composition shows a grinning, winged, horned satyr emerging from a curled bunch of acanthus leaves, grasping the horns of a bull, the animal's tongue extending from its open mouth.  The model has been historically attributed to Riccio and his circle on the basis of comparisons with satyrs that appear on his Paschal Candelabrum in the Basilica del Santo in Padua and the Cadogan oil lamp at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where the sculptor's affinity for capriciously mixing decorative, naturalistic, and mythical elements is evident.