Saturday, June 17, 2017

Three Dimensional and Opaque Works of Art

Greece
Akroterion from Grave Stele
4th century BC
marble
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

François Duquesnoy
Rondanini Faun
1625-30
marble
British Museum

The statue above was very heavily restored in 1620s Rome by Flemish sculptor François Duquesnoy. It began with an ancient fragment of torso and one thigh. Duquesnoy added legs, arms, shoulders and head. Yet when the completed piece went on display in the Rondanini Palace in Rome it became famous as the Rondanini Faun, a prestigious Roman statue, not as a modern statue by the young artist François Duquesnoy, friend of Nicolas Poussin. Duquesnoy's involvement was no secret, but somehow his contribution was not considered conclusive. Even so, from the sculptor's point of view there was no essential distinction between an elaborate "restoration" (like that above) and a new, independent work of sculpture (like the ivory below) generated from raw materials, imagination and manual ability alone.

"In the seventeenth century the antique was valued, but not as a fragment.  High prices were paid for ancient sculptures, and princes and cardinals would quarrel over finds, and farmers struggle to maintain their rights over territory under which such treasures might be found.  . . .  Broken and fragmentary marbles were avidly hunted, collected, and then, more often than not, kept in store-rooms; for in a sculpture gallery, on a staircase, in a loggia or in a garden, only complete statues were judged fit for display.  And so developed the profession of the restorer, the man who converted the former into the latter.  This was by far the steadiest and most reliable profession the sculptor could adopt." 

– Jennifer Montagu, from Roman Baroque Sculpture: The Industry of Art (Yale University Press, 1989)

Jennifer Montagu reported in her 1989 text that the Rondanini Faun "having languished for decades in the store-rooms of the British Museum because so little of it met the criteria of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, is now, by a most enlightened exchange, the centerpiece of the baroque primary gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum."  However, according to the current online catalog, the statue has returned to the British Museum, no longer in storage but on display  as 17th-century work by Duquesnoy.

attributed to François Duquesnoy
Bound Christ
1620s
ivory statuette
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Rome
Head of Apollo
1st-2nd century AD
marble
British Museum

attributed to Andrea del Verrocchio
St Jerome
before 1488
terracotta sketch-model
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Andrea della Robbia
Boy playing Bagpipes
ca. 1490-1520
enameled terracotta statuette
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
 
Willem Danielsz van Tetrode
Striding Warrior
1562-67
bronze statuette
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Rome
The Farnese Hermes
1st century AD
marble
British Museum

"Marble statue of Hermes wearing small chlamys and winged sandals; caduceus in left hand; left hand and much of legs restored.  The statue is a Roman copy of a famous type created in the school of the Greek sculptor Praxiteles in the fourth century BC. Together with a statue of Apollo, this sculpture once framed the central doorway of the gallery in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome."

Entered the British Museum in 1864. Purchased through agents from the hereditary owner, Ferdinand II King of Naples and Sicily. 

 curatorial notes, British Museum

Anonymous Italian sculptor
Copy of Medici Vase
17th century
marble copy of frieze elements
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Anonymous Dutch sculptor
Admiral Piet Hein
ca. 1650
painted wood
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous Dutch sculptor
Stadholder Frederik Hendrik
ca. 1625-75
painted wood
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

François Dieussart
William II Prince of Orange
ca. 1650-75
painted wood
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Francesco di Valdambrino
Virgin Annunciate
ca. 1423
carved and painted walnut
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Bust-portrait of Louis XIV
1665
marble (carved in Paris)
Palace of Versailles

François Dieussart
Portrait of Charles II in exile
ca. 1650
marble
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam