Italian, Probably Padua, Early 16th Century

Palazzo Odescalchi, Rome;

Christie's London, 8 November 2007, lot 447;

Where acquired by Aso O. Tavitian.

The present writing casket was a highly popular model in Renaissance Italy, and over fifty examples have been recorded. It is likely that the design originated in the 1470s in Rome or Mantua, although many of the bronze versions are thought to have been cast in Padua in the early sixteenth century by various workshops. Several variations of the casket exist, as artists and workshops adapted the decorative motifs to their taste. Similar examples of this model, often with different feet, are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (WA 1947.191.172), the Wallace Collection, London (S65), the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, Madrid (K28E), and a more elaborate version is in the Frick Collection, New York (1916.2.32).

RELATED LITERATURE

J. Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum. Sculptures in Metal, vol. I, no. 16, pp. 65-71.