Hai bisogno di informazioni precise ? Trova il prezzo e altre valutazioni grazie alla nostra banca dati di opere d’arte africane. A Netherlandish Bronze "Aeolipile" or Steamblower, circa

Descrizione : 1580-1600, the front formed as a bejewelled sphinx head with puffed cheeks, the lips pursed and with a pin-hole size aperture at the mouth to blow air, a leaf-shaped stopper on top of the head, a grinning satyr"s mask below resting on acanthus scroll-form foot, his teeth gnawing at the wings of a pelican plucking its breast and forming the hindquarters, the curved neck forming a handle, the center with another grotesque mask, two claw feet (repaired) clutching rocks supporting the half, chocolate-brown patina beneath black lacquer, height: 153/4 in. (40 cm.). Provenance: Richard von Kaufman Collection, Berlin, sold in Berlin 1917, vol. III, lot. 215, fig. 14, purchased by Mr. M. Pollack Jacques Seligman, Paris until 1925 Richard Weininger, Berlin Sold at Christie"s London December 5, 1972, lot 46 (as Riccio) Literature: L. Planiscig, Andrea Riccio, Vienna 1927, p. 378-9, fig. 473 (as a work by Riccio). G. Seligman, Merchants of Art, New York 1961, pl. 42B (as a work by Riccio). Related Literature: Fortunius Licetus, De Lucernis Antiquorum Reconditis libb sex, VI, Cap. XXIV, Udine, 1652. Montfaucon, L"Antiquite Expliquee, 1722, Vol. V, Part 2, pl. CLXXXIV. W. L. Hildburgh, "Aeolipiles as Fire-blowers", in Archaeologia, vol. XVIV, Oxford, 1951. H. R. Weihrauch, EuropŠische Bronzestatuetten, Braunschweig, 1967, fig. 120, pp. 112-113. W. Bode, The Italian Bronze Statuettes of the Renaissance (revised ed. by J.D. Draper), New York 1980, pls. XLVI-XLVIII. Welt im Umbruch: Augsburg zwischen Renaissance und Barock, (exhib. cat.) Augsburg, 1980. Natur und Antike in der Renaissance (exhib. cat.), Liebieghaus, Frankfurt am Main, 5 December 1985 to 2 March 1986, cat. no. 225. This apparently unique bronze is related to a group of smaller oil lamps in the form of a combined pelican and elephant, examples of which are in the Bargello, Florence (Planiscig, op.cit., fig. 474), the Collection of Sir Alfred Beit, Russborough, the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This group is linked to the present bronze by another lamp in the Museo Estense, Modena which combines the long, scaled neck and a woman"s head with puffed cheeks with both the elephant"s head and pelican"s body (Planiscig, op.cit., no. 475 and Weihrauch, op.cit., no. 120). This type of sphinx head was related by Planiscig to Riccio"s Della Torre monument in San Fermio Maggiore in Verona. The combination of animal forms of this type was presumably derived from classical engraved gems (see, L. Agostini, Le Gemme Antiche Figurate, Rome 1686, vol. II, pl. 80). These kinds of forms were drawn and published by Licetus, the Paduan Antiquarium, in the 17th Century. Montfaucon reproduced these engravings in the 18th Century (see Montfaucon, op.cit., pl. CLXXXIV), and it is clear that many of them (in the form of oil lamps) are not antique or indeed early Renaissance. They appear, for the most part, to date from the end of the 16th or beginning of the 17th Century. Although the grotesque and metamorphic aspects of these mysterious vessels are clearly derived from Riccio"s oeuvre, their details and facture do not correspond directly to his work and are now dated mid-16th Century (Liebieghaus, op.cit., no. 225). The Egyptian sphinx was traditionally a symbol of power and it was given a woman"s head and breasts and wings in classical Greece. In the Renaissance period, sphinxes were commonly associated with fire and death and were therefore often used to decorate chimneys or formed andirons or candelabrum. In the present case, the bronze must have been used as a bellows for a fire, which was the function of an aeolipile. The pelican form is both functional and symbolic; the curved neck can be used as a handle as the bird is positioned to pierce its breast to feed its young, according to Medieval tradition. However, this act has always been synonymous with the symbol Christ"s sacrifice and Christian charity. One may take this a step further and interpret this combination of forms and symbols as a type of memento mori; the pelican symbolizing rescue and the sphinx symbolizing the brevity of life which at any time could extinguish. The aeolipile was a device known in antiquity and was described by Vitruvious as an object that would blow a force of wind on a fire by means of a build up of steam pressure within the vessel which would be released through a tiny aperture. The vessel was named "aeolipile" after the Greek god Aeolus, god of the winds. Renaissance scientific writers describe ball-shaped aeolipiles as objects to be placed on coals to maintain the fire, thus the earlier title of "Fire-blower". Various forms are documented, both made of bronze and ceramic, and were gradually recognized as a means for amusement. The silver eyes on the present bronze indicates that the object was made for an important individual and may reveal a relationship to an oil lamp sold at Sotheby"s New York, November 28, 1980, lot 102 with silver eyes, in the form of a dragon-like satyr with a man"s face, lion"s feet and dolphin"s tail (there catalogued as Paduan circa 1500). The facture and colour of the bronze relates to northern sculpture of the later sixteenth century, notably the Netherlands. The hard-edged, deliberate detailing of the cast recalls bronzes cast from wood models, a common practice in the North. This type of work can be seen in that of Nuremberg cannon founders of the period. Furthermore, Wiehrauch (op.cit., fig. 381) illustrates a bronze rampant griffon, Augsburg 1570, displaying forearms scaled in a similar manner to the neck of the present bronze as well as extremely similar masses of feathers. Hubert Gerhard (1550-1622/23), a Northern follower of Giambologna, was best known for his monumental bronze sculpture made for the Dukes of Bavaria in Munich, his work for Maximillian of Austria and the decorative program for Hans Fugger"s castle in Kirchenheim. Gerhard designed bronze satyr masks, other grotesque forms and functional, decorative elements such as a doorknob (Welt im Umbruch, op.cit, no. 531) in the form of a female with long braids and elongated, scrolling neck terminating in a grotesque mask which swallows her body. This type of combination of forms and details, like the incised eyes, the long braids and headdress as well as the form of the mask are all reminiscent of the present aeolipile. Moreover, the braids on the present bronze joined by a pendant to form a necklace was typical of the Renaissance period in the North where heavy, gold chains were worn and boldly displayed by women (see Weihrauch, op.cit, no. 358) and were often fastened to the headdress in the back. Some crude forms of aeolipiles have survived from the Middle Ages in the form of a man"s or boy"s head, examples of which are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, the Museo Correr, Venice and the Louvre, Paris, all dating from the late 15th/early 16th Century. Although some stylistic comparisons can be made to the school of Fontainbleau of the mid-16th Century, the present aeolipile is the most creative and accomplished known and is closer to the exaggerated Mannerist forms found in the North in the later 16th and early 17th Centuries.
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