Cast from a model ATTRIBUTED TO WILLEM VAN TETRODE (Delft CIRCA 1525-1580 Haarlem) Dutch, late 16th century

Paris, private collection
European private collection

Standard surface abrasions, some small dents. Golden patina with remainders of reddish translucent lacquer and dark brown opaque lacquer. Old repaired casting flaws at ankles and proper right elbow (stable). Beautiful quality. Later wood socle.
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The present unpublished and apparently unique allegorical bronze statuette of Temperance is stylistically linked to the oeuvre of Willem van Tetrode, the prominent Netherlandish sculptor who worked in Italy for Benvenuto Cellini and Guglielmo della Porta, among others. The muscular physique of the female figure, rounded breasts and distinct facial features reveal the work of a Northern sculptor who was conversant in Antique models. Tetrode travelled to Rome where he worked as a restorer of classical marble statues in the studio of Guglielmo della Porta, sculptor to the Farnese family. He later included reductions of ancient statues on his famous cabinet, commissioned by Niccolò IV Orsini, Count of Pitigliano (1559). The sculptor would have been familiar with the classical marble Standing Venus (recorded in 1536 and now in the Musei Vaticani) which, similar to the present bronze, stands in contrapposto, with slightly turned head, hair plaited and gathered on her head, with one hand extended from her side while grasping a cloth.  

Although, no bronze female figure attributed to Tetrode exists, much of his work was destroyed during the Dutch Iconoclastic outbreaks of 1573, the present bronze is extremely similar to statuettes of goddesses that appear in engravings of Tetrode's bronzes by Adriaen de Weert. These engravings provide information about a variety of compositions by the sculptor (now lost). The prints were probably commissioned by Peter ter Layn, a wealthy wine merchant and burgomaster in Cologne for whom Tetrode worked from 1573-1575. One of them includes three standing figures of Venus and Cupid, Jupiter and his Eagle, and Mercury (fig. 1). The figure of Venus is illustrated (in reverse) with the same attitude, elegant coiffure and figure style, including one foot slightly raised on a tree stump, as seen with the present bronze. Another print shows Mercury and Minerva in a niche in the library of the Bishop of Cologne, Valentin von Isenburg, Tetrode’s patron from 1575; again, the figure of Minerva is strikingly similar to that of the present statuette.

Perhaps an even more compelling likeness is found in a drawing by Hendrick Goltzius, Venus ex balneo, 1591 (fig. 2), a direct quotation of the Standing Venus in the Vatican. As with Tetrode's Temperance, Goltzius includes a tree stump against which she leans and the figure’s head is correspondingly inclined and coiffed with plaits. The similarity in the full faces and the depiction of the eyes and noses with diminutive mouths, are striking. In the exhibition catalogue, Goltzius in the third dimension 1558-1617 (op.cit.), Goddard and Ganz examine Tetrode’s considerable influence on Goltzius who he would have known in Cologne. Moreover, Adriaen de Weert who created the prints of Tetrode's statuettes, also worked with Dirck Volckertsz Coornhert in Cologne who then became Goltzius’ teacher. In comparing both the sculptures and the prints, it is clear that Tetrode’s bronzes were the direct source for Goltzius’ compositions. 

The subject of Temperance, one of the Cardinal Virtues, is substantiated by the image on a bronze plaquette (circa 1590) by the Nuremberg goldsmith Hans Kellner (1555-1609) (Weber, op.cit.). The robust anatomy of this female figure represents a Northern Renaissance archetype derived from images by Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein.

RELATED LITERATURE
I. Weber, Deutsche, Niederlädische und Französische Renaissanceplaketten 1500-1650, Munich, 1975, pp. 174-175, no. 302
S. H. Goddard and J. A. Ganz, Goltzius and the Third Dimension, exhibition catalogue, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, January 19-March 16, 2002
H. Leeflang and G. Luitjen et. al…, Hendrick Goltzius (1558-16170. Drawings, Prints, Paintings, exhibition catalogue, The Rijksmuseum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, 2003, p. 270, fig. 107
Frits Scholten (ed.), Willem van Tetrode, Sculptor (c. 1525-1580), exhibition catalogue, The Rijskmuseum, Amsterdam, The Frick Collection, New York, Zwolle, 2003