Attributed to Alceo Dossena (1878-1937), in the manner of Giovanni Antonio Amadeo (c. 1447-1522)

Coll. Walter P. Chrysler Jr. 

Sotheby's New York, 22 juin 1989, lot 46 (52 000 $)

H. Lavagne, "La Justice de Trajan", Bull. de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France, Paris, 1996, pp. 285-287 (fig.1, ill.).

Related Literature / Références bibliographiques

D. Sox, ‘The Dossena Deception Continues’, Apollo, March 1990, pp. 158-164;

D. Del Bufalo and M. Horak, Il Falso nell’ Arte. Aleco Dossena e la Scultura Italiana del Rinascimento, exh. cat., Mart Rovereto, 2021, pp. 97-98, p. 182.

This impressive, unsigned marble relief represents the famous scene of Trajan’s Justice; a moralising legend of a ruler’s duty to enact impartial judgement. Trajan’s army is shown departing on campaign, marching through a monumental arch. A crowd of townspeople gather on the far left of the composition, a child sits on his father’s shoulders and two men whisper to each other conspiratorially in the foreground. Trajan arrives on horseback from the right, a mounted general by his side. In his right-hand Trajan holds his commander’s baton which he raises in judgement before the kneeling figure in front of him.

The style of the carving is reminiscent of Lombard sculptors from the late 15^th to the early 16^th century. Specific comparisons can be made with the work of Giovanni Antonio Amedeo (c. 1447-1522). Born in Pavia, Amadeo worked in Milan, Cremona and his native city, where he worked in the Certosa. Compare, for example, the facial types and cartigious drapery in the present marble with the reliefs on the North pulpit or specifically compare the two kneeling figures shown from behind in the relief of S. Imerio distributing alms on the saints shrine with the kneeling figure in the foreground of the Justice of Trajan relief, both in Cremona Cathedral.

However, some prominent elements in the present composition are inconsistent with the style of North Italian 15th sculpture. The horseman on the far right of the composition is posed in a sharp contrapposto, with the head of the horse pulled sharply to the right. This pose seems more baroque in inspiration rather than 15th century. Equally, the twisting pose of the bearded man in the centre of the composition is inconsistent with the work of Amedeo and his contemporaries.

These various anachronistic elements indicate that this Trajan relief is 19th century. Alceo Dossena is perhaps the most renowned sculpture forger of the 19th century, whose work has received considerable critical attention recently with the current exhibition in Mart Rovereto (op. cit.). Born in Cremona, his precocious skills were developed by restoration work in churches and historical buildings, but his talent for imitating the past was exploited by the unscrupulous dealers, Alfredo Fasoli and Alfredo Pallesi, whose fraud and exploitation of Dossena was exposed in the 1928 court case.

A marble statuette of a horse, signed by Dossena, was sold in Sothebys, London on 9th July 2020 as lot 115 and compares closely with the composition of both horses in the present relief. In addition, the Trento catalogue illustrates marble reliefs by Dossena with close stylistic affinities (Il Falso nell’Arte, op. cit., p. 97, figs. 9 & 10). But, the most striking comparison is the relief of the Adoration of the Magi in the Dario Del Bufalo collection, Rome, (Il Falso nell’Arte, op. cit. p. 182. We are grateful for Dott. Del Bufalo for his comments on this relief). The idiosyncratic treatment of the trees, the arrangement of the composition in groups of figures and the steep perspective of the foreground are very close. Furthermore, the kneeling figure in the foreground here has distinct affinities with the Magdalene in the marble relief by Dossena of the Noli me tangere in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., (Sox, op. cit., p. 158). All these factors strongly suggest an attribution to Alceo Dossena.

We are very grateful to Prof. Vito Zani for his observations on this relief.