Francesco Fanelli (1577 - after 1642), Anglo-Italian, circa 1630-1640

Certainly Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, Bart., Langley Hall, Norfolk, before 1815;
and thence by descent

Descriptive catalogue of the pictures and pieces of sculpture at Langley Hall, Norfolk the seat of Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, Bart., 1815, unpublished;
Inventory of heirlooms at Langley Park in the County of Norfolk directed to be taken and signed by the Will of Sir Reginald William Proctor Beauchamp, deceased, 1912, unpublished

Overall the condition of the bronze is good. There is some wear and dirt to the surface consistent with age. There are a few minor nicks and scratches to the surface including to the base of the dragon's proper left wing and the proper right haunch of the horse. There is some minor rubbing to the patina at the high points such as the proper left haunch of the horse and George's left shoulder. The dragon, St. George and his horse and the terrasse were cast separately; both figures are slightly loose, mainly due to two missing nuts on the underside at the dragon's rear claws. The Saint's spear is bent in several places. There are several stable hairline casting fissures to the base, some of which have original plugs or solder repairs. There are three circular holes to the base, the middle one is plugged with a painted wood peg. The wood core of the base has worming throughout, some of which has been countered by filling the holes with wax and painting the uncovered wood. Some of the paint has stained the tortoiseshell on the top. The shell is slightly discoloured and has a few minor splits to its edges. Two copper finials are missing from the back corners of the base. The mount at the right back corner is slightly loose.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Francesco Fanelli's equestrian bronzes were highly celebrated in seventeenth-century England. George Vertue wrote that 'he had a particular genius for these works and was much esteemd in K Charles I time – and afterwards.' Fanelli's bronzes were instrumental in establishing the vogue for baroque sculpture in England. According to Abraham van der Doort's 1639 inventory of the Royal Collection, Charles I owned five statuettes by Fanelli, including 'a little S George on horseback with a dragon by.' This bronze was displayed in the cabinet room at Whitehall alongside Raphael's painting of the same subject (now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington), which John Pope-Hennessy suggested was the inspiration for Fanelli's model. It is, however, more likely that Fanelli developed his composition in Genoa, a city state which shared St George as its patron saint and was home to Fanelli from 1605, prior to his arrival in England.

Fanelli's St George and the Dragon exists in two principal variants. The present bronze is taken from the first, in which Fanelli adapted his model of the Leaping Horse (see lot 63), a work which can be indentified by its extended hind legs and pronounced twist of the head. St George leans backwards and is represented with both hands gripping the lance. The present bronze is one of only two known casts which survive with the original naturalistic base of large oval form. The other, formerly in the collections of the Duke of Portland, is believed to be the same as that described by George Vertue as 'St George combatant with the dragon,' which, according to Vertue, was purchased by William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle (1592-1676) and installed at Welbeck Abbey (op.cit. Pope-Hennessy, p. 169, fig. 195). The pose and modelling of the dragon are also the same as in the present bronze. Other examples of this first, more spirited composition, but without the oval base, are held in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Collection. In his second variant of the subject of St George, Fanelli used his model of the Rearing Horse, where the saint leans forward, grasping the reigns of the horse with one hand, while lancing the dragon with the other. A cast of this model is in the Holburne Museum, Bath (op.cit. Pope-Hennessy, p. 169, n. 23, fig. 193).

The present bronze may well have been acquired by George Proctor who spent some time in Venice and is known to have commissioned several notable paintings there for his new home of Langley Park.  Proctor bought the estate in Norfolk in 1742 and employed the local architect Matthew Brettingham to build a house in a distinguished Palladian manner.  From the 1815 inventory of the collection of Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor we know that the Fanelli bronze was in the Saloon, near to the Cabinet Room (fig. 1).

RELATED LITERATURE
J. Pope-Hennessy, 'Some Bronze Statuettes by Francesco Fanelli,' in Essays on Italian Sculpture, London and New York, 1968, pp. 166-171; S. Stock, 'Fanelli, Francesco (b. 1577),' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004, online edn, Jan 2008; B. Van Beneden and N. de Poorter, Royalist Refugees. William and Margaret Cavendish in the Rubens House 1648-1660, exh. cat. Rubenshuis, Antwerp, 2006, pp. 198-199, no. 59