Francesco Bertos (Venice 1678 - 1741) Venice, 18th century

pair of allegorical groups: Carrying off Fame and Folly Supporting Spring

Lot Closed

January 30, 08:44 PM GMT

Estimate

50,000 - 70,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Francesco Bertos (Venice 1678 - 1741)

Venice, 18th century

pair of allegorical groups: Carrying off Fame and Folly Supporting Spring

bronze, on waisted marble socles

heights overall 25 1/4 and 25 3/4 in.; 64.2 and 65.1cm.

Collection of Brigadier G.P. Hardy-Roberts;
His sale, Sotheby's London, 2 December 1969, lots 119 and 120;
Purchased by "Leggatt";
Alex Wengraf, Ltd., London, 1994

P. Wengraf, The Glory of Venice, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, 1994, p. 432;
C. Avery, Bertos: The Triumph in Motion, Venice 2008, nos. 83, 87 and 88, p. 202

London, Royal Academy, The Glory of Venice, September 1994, no. 59

The pose of the male figure holding the nude female aloft is a familiar motif in Bertos's allegorical groups and certainly derives from Giambologna's Rape of the Sabines. The second bronze of this pair shares the same composition with the Bertos group of Industry and Virtue in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Another pair, probably forming a set of four with the Getty pair, were sold in these rooms in sale of The Arthur Sackler Estate, 29 January 2010 lot 482.

Although the attributes here are somewhat ambiguous, which is not uncommon in Bertos' work, one female figure holds a trumpet (which represents Fame) and the other has a wreath of leaves on her head and holds plants in her hands, which could be associated with Spring.