Attributed to Niccolo Roccatagliata

Earl of Spencer, Althorp, Northamptonshire;

thence by descent, until 2005

This charming inkwell with gadrooned design and lid decorated with acanthus leaves is characteristic of bronzes by Niccolo Roccatagliata. The well is supported by a base of triangular form with three half-length putti figures and floral motifs. The object is surmounted by a fine figure of Cupid. The composition of the inkwell with supporting figures at the bottom and a putto on top derives from an andiron with putti by Roccatagliata in the Museo Nazionale de Bargello in Florence (inv. no.142.237). Several inkwells are associated with Roccatagliata, including one sold in these rooms, Sotheby’s, London, 17 December 2008, lot 160.

The attribution is supported by a comparison to the wider oeuvre of the prolific Venetian sculptor Roccatagliata. Trained in the workshop of Agistino Groppo since 1571, Roccatagliata became known for his refined bronzes of allegorical and mythological subjects, alongside larger ecclesiastical commissions. He was also celebrated as the master of putto figures, which he regularly included either as supportive elements in larger compositions, in fixtures, or as standalone statues.

The present Cupid compares with Roccatagliata’s bronze Cupid in a private collection, Vienna, illustrated by Planiscig (op. cit., p.608, fig.675), which also carries the quiver across his torso and bow in his proper right hand. Further parallels can be drawn to a putto in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. 5749), which has a similar physique with chubby legs. The triangular base of the inkwell relates to the base of a candlestick in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, which is attributed to Roccatagliata’s workshop (inv. no. 561-1865), and which also includes three half-length putti. The shape of Cupid’s face with high forehead and prominent curls compares to the bronze Saint George and the Dragon which Roccatagliata cast for the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. A version of that model, which was formerly in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, was sold in Sotheby's New York on 29 January 2010, lot 413.

RELATED LITERATURE

P. Wengraf, M. Leithe-Jasper, European bronzes from the Quentin Collection: an exhibition at the Frick Collection, exh. cat. The Frick Collection, New York, 2004; L. Planiscig, Venezianische Bildhauer der Renaissance, Vienna, 1921, p. 597; V. Krahn, Bronzetti Veneziani: Die venezianischen Kleinbronzen der Renaissance aus dem Bode-Museum Berlin, Berlin, 2003, pp. 222-223; C. Avery, 'Decorative Utensils and Domestic Ornaments'., in C. Avery, Studies in European Sculpture, London, 1981, pp. 63-70