An Anglo-Italian bronze group of Venus and Cupid, workshop of Francesco Fanelli (1577-after 1641), 17th century

The rounded features, simplified surface treatment, and baroque style of this charming statuette are consistent with the work of Francesco Fanelli.  An Italian expatriate working in England--where he appeared in an inventory of Charles I as "Francisco the one-eyed Italian"--Fanelli ran a lucrative workshop producing sculpture in the Italian tradition for the northern market. Adapted from Giambologna's model of a Woman Bathing (e.g. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. no. 5874), this bronze group is more specifically based on the Venus and Cupid in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (inv. no. 49/39), tentatively attributed to Gianfrancesco Susini by Weihrauch.  Another version was reproduced in an engraving of the Amsterdam collection of Jacobus de Wilde in 1700.  A closely related version of the present model was sold at Sotheby's London, December 14, 2001, lot 57, and another with slight varations also at Sotheby's London, December 10, 2002, lot 98.

RELATED LITERATURE

H. Weihrauch, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum Munchen. XIII, 5. Die Bildwerke in Bronze und in anderen Metallen, 1956, no. 114
W. Wixom, Renaissance Bronzes from Ohio Collections, exh. cat., The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975, no. 149
C. Avery and A. Radcliffe, Giambologna 1529-1608, Sculptor to the Medici, exh. cat., Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1978, no. 9, p. 66
C. Avery and M. Hall, Giambologna, An Exhibition of Sculpture by the Master and his Followers from the Collection of Michael Hall, Esq., exh. cat., Salander O'Reilly Galleries, New York 1988, pp. 8-10, no. 3