 |
| Anonymous Italian sculptor Siren ca. 1570-1590 bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Anonymous Italian sculptor Siren ca. 1570-1590 bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Anonymous Italian sculptor Siren ca. 1570-1590 bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art |
No miniature, the bronze siren at the Metropolitan Museum measures more than a yard across. She was probably made for the Colonna family in Rome toward the end of the 16th century, passing into the collections of the high-flying and rapacious Barberini family during the first part of the 17th century. Curators report a 1644 inventory describing "a siren of bronze, with a crown on her head" displayed in a small room in the Palazzo Barberini apartments of Cardinal Antonio Barberini.
More Renaissance metalwork of equally staggering remoteness and refinement appears below –
 |
| Filarete Cincinnatus at the Plough ca. 1450 bronze plaquette Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Ludovico del Duca Angel ca. 1590-1600 bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Giambologna Triton 1560s bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Giambologna Triton 1560s bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Alessandro Vittoria St. Sebastian 1566 bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Alessandro Vittoria St. Sebastian 1566 bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Alessandro Vittoria St. Sebastian 1566 bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Filippo Negroli Burgonet 1543 steel Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Filippo Negroli Burgonet 1543 steel Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Filippo Negroli Burgonet 1543 steel Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Filippo Negroli Burgonet 1543 steel Metropolitan Museum of Art |