S3|1|1|Production of sculpted panels in gypsum alabaster (sulphate of lime) flourished in Nottingham and surrounding areas in the fifteenth century. Most depict scenes from the Passion of Christ, the Life of the Virgin or saints and martyrdoms. They were painted and gilded, and usually set within a wooden framework, either singly or in a series, to form altarpieces. The subject of the Resurrection of Christ (Matthew 28: 3) is one of the commoner subjects for Nottingham alabasters. This particular example is notable for the fine state of preservation of its painted and gilded surface.
S6|1|1|The date and origin of this Renaissance-style chimney-piece is unclear. The date of 1511 (‘MDXI’) appears on the tablet beneath the dolphin’s tail on the left upright and has been tentatively associated with the sculptor Ambrogio Barocci, who worked in Venice. However, there are no close parallels among Italian chimney-pieces from the early decades of the sixteenth century. It is likely that, with its eclectic combination of decorative elements, it is in fact a modern pastiche in Renaissance style, probably made around the time of Sir Richard Wallace’s refurbishments to Hertford House. It reflects Wallace’s interest in providing a sympathetic environment for the collection of Renaissance art that he displayed in the Sixteenth-Century Room.
S7|1|1|Torrigiani, Michelangelo’s bitter rival when they were students together in the Florentine Academy and the man who famously broke Michelangelo’s nose in a fight, had come to England by 1511, the year he began a number of sculptures for Westminster Abbey. In 1512 he was commissioned by Henry VIII to design and execute the tomb of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York in the newly built chapel of Henry VII. This bust was also sculpted for the Abbey, and was originally mounted on a wall between the Islip and Esteney Chapels in the north transept. It was probably removed from there in the eighteenth century. It is said that Sir Richard Wallace discovered the sculpture in the servants’ hall of his country seat, Sudbourne Hall in Suffolk.
S13|1|1|This alabaster equestrian portrait of Fredrik II of Denmark and Norway (1534-88) bears an eccentric inscription which may be translated ‘My trust is in God alone/Wilpret is true/By God’s grace King of the Danes’. Wilpret was Fredrik’s favourite dog. The sculpture may be by Geert van Egen (working 1591-1600), one of many sculptors from the Netherlands who worked in Germany and Scandinavia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He sculpted the tomb of Fredrick II in Roskilde Cathedral (1594-8).
S22|1|1|This sculpture bears a false signature of the French sculptor Claude-Augustin Cayot (1677-1722) and the date 1706, but was recently identified as being in fact an important work by the Florentine sculptor Filippo della Valle. In 1732 Della Valle dedicated an engraving to Francesco Gaburri identifying the sculpture as his own work. Why and when it acquired Cayot’s ‘signature’ is unknown, but a French identity would have probably assisted its sale in Paris to either the 4th Marquess of Hertford or Sir Richard Wallace. Terracotta and porcelain versions of the sculpture are known. Although adult lovers in the original tale, in art Cupid and Psyche are frequently depicted as children.
S25|1|1|This portrait of Madame Victoire de France (1733–1799), one of the daughters of Louis XV, was made by the great sculptor Antoine Houdon. A perfect example of Houdon at his most decorative, the bust presents the princess at middle age and, without resorting to flattery, brilliantly succeeds in conveying the sense of prestige required of a royal portrait.<br><br>Born into a humble family, Houdon manifested great artistic talent from a young age. He won the opportunity to train at the French Academy in Rome where he was from 1764 to 1768. Here he studied anatomy on dissected bodies (a practice that gave him a superior anatomical knowledge that would prove invaluable in his work, particularly as a portrait artist) and absorbed the lesson of classical sculpture which would strongly influence him throughout his career.<br><br>Mme Victoire was famously portrayed by Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766) in a series of paintings depicting her and her sisters as personifications of the four elements (today in the Museu de Arte in São Paulo). Admired for her morality and piety, after the Revolution, she was forced to flee to Italy and died in exile.<br><br>The two portrait busts of Mme Victoire and her sister Mme Adelaïde (today at the Louvre), were commissioned from Houdon in 1777, after a very successful exhibition at the Salon where he displayed over 30 works in various materials (among which were 15 portraits). Despite being accepted by the sitters, for Houdon it proved extremely difficult to obtain payment for the portraits and it was only thanks to the Surintendent des Bâtiments du roi, the Comte d’Angiviller, that he was finally compensated in 1785.<br><br>Made for a member of the royal family, this bust is naturally more formal and traditional in character, but the very fine details (for example in the treatment of the lace on the Princess’ bodice) and the general attitude of the sitter radiate a sense of confidence clearly deriving from her high status.
S26|1|1|This portrait of Madame Anne-Marie-Louise Mégret de Sérilly was signed and dated by Jean-Antoine Houdon, the leading portrait artist of his time, in 1782.<br><br>Born into a humble family, Houdon manifested great artistic talent from a young age. He won the opportunity to train at the French Academy in Rome where he was from 1764 to 1768. Here he studied anatomy on dissected bodies (a practice that gave him a superior anatomical knowledge that would prove invaluable in his work, particularly as a portrait artist) and absorbed the lesson of classical sculpture which would strongly influence him throughout his career.<br><br>Houdon was happy to work for the art market and produced copies and variants of his most successful models, often in different materials. It is therefore not surprising that three versions of this bust exist: the others are today in Chicago and Minneapolis.<br><br>Born in 1762, Anne-Marie-Louise Thomas de Pange de Domangeville belonged to a family which had only recently been ennobled. However, no expense was spared in her education in order to equip her with all the skills and knowledge deemed necessary for a lady of the high society.<br><br>In 1779, she married Antoine-Jean-François Mégret de Sérilly, who held an important office at court. Her life was marked by extremely dramatic events: her husband went bankrupt in 1788 and the family had to move outside of Paris. After the Revolution, in 1794, she was arrested with her husband and brother with the accusation of having conspired to assist the escape attempt of Louis XVI the previous year. Only the claim that she was pregnant spared her the execution, allowing her to take advantage of the fall of Robespierre and the end of the Terror shortly after. After her escape from prison, she tried to reclaim possession of the wealth once belonging to her late husband and married again twice without luck: both her husbands died of illness shortly after the marriage and she herself contracted smallpox in 1799 dying aged just thirty-seven.<br><br>When the bust was made, Mme de Sérilly was only nineteen and at the height of her famed beauty here enhanced by the turn of the head and the sensuous lock of hair falling on her bare skin. Always attentive to the psychological characterisation of his sitters, Houdon does not fail to also convey the personality of Mme de Sérilly: her intent gaze suggests a woman of intelligence, clearly aware of her beauty and status.<br><br>Houdon was one of the sculptors Lord Hertford most appreciated as he owned no less than seven works by him, although only two today remain in our collection (see also S25, Portrait of Mme Victoire de France).
S50|1|1|This figure shows Christ as the Good Shepherd, symbolising his care for and guidance of his flock. It belongs to a small group of rock crystal figures of the Christ Child produced in Goa and Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). This Christian theme was introduced there by missionaries, who accompanied Portuguese traders, and appealed to local people, who were accustomed to similarly seated images of the Buddha. Similar statues in ivory are known. The figure is a superb example of the local tradition of carving rock crystal and decorating it with gold and precious stones.<br><br>Works of art in rock crystal were desirable collectors' objects in Renaissance Kunstkammern, or princely curiosity cabinets, which Sir Richard Wallace aspired to evoke.
S52|1|1|First recorded at Hertford House in 1890.
S53|1|1|Our relief was probably made in the workshop of Andrea della Robbia (1435-1525), nephew of Luca (1400-82), who pioneered the production of this type of sculpture.<br>The theme of the Virgin with the standing Child must have been very popular, as the numerous surviving examples testify, and indeed was one that Andrea re-worked numerous times since the early 1470s. It is a very successful composition, closely focusing on the love between a mother and child, clearly expressed by the tenderness with which the two heads touch and in the loving way in which the Virgin supports the young Christ, who in turn places his right hand on his mother's left.<br>Two other examples of this composition, very close to our relief, are today still in street tabernacles in Florence. In particular, the one in the Piazza dell'Unità is among the very few works attributed with some certainty to Andrea himself and seems to date to 1490-1500 allowing us to refer our relief to around the same time.
S54|1|1|Similar busts of the Young Christ, or the young St John the Baptist, were produced widely in Florence during the 15th century, and many survive. Although great sculptors often carved these subjects in marble, numerous were made in humbler materials like terracotta and stucco and served as private devotional objects. They are well-documented in Florentine domestic interiors of the time as tri-dimensional depictions of holy figures were believed to have a virtuous and pious essence, capable of influencing those in their presence. Figures of the Infant Christ and of St John the Baptist (patron saint of Florence) were considered especially helpful in forming a virtuous nature in young boys and therefore they were often paired.<br><br>Our bust closely follows one of the oldest documented examples, the bust in painted terracotta from the church of the Misericordia in Florence, paired with a St John. In our bust some elements are simplified, mostly in the treatment of the hair, tunic and drapery. Most of the painted decoration has been removed (seemingly intentionally) from our bust, but traces are still visible on the back, where the colour of the tunic, red with gilded border, once again replicates the Misericordia model.<br><br>S54 has often been linked to a bust of the infant St John the Baptist which had been in the Bideford Church and in the 1860s had been considered by the V&A for acquisition. Both ours and the Bideford bust, inscribed “Donatello” at the back, have been variously attributed to Antonio Rossellino (1427-1479), Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488) and others. Today the closest comparison seems to be with early works of Andrea della Robbia (1435-1525), although these models were so popular that it is likely that they were produced in more than one workshop.
S55|1|1|This depiction of the young St John the Baptist in the desert refers directly to descriptions of this phase of his life given in the Gospels. The subject was extremely popular in Florence (St John the Baptist was the patron saint of the city) and numerous sculptures depicting the saint in similar attitude and iconography were produced in Florence between the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century. The marked differences in their quality, facture and detail suggest that more than one workshop was producing them, although it is generally acknowledged that the best surviving example is the one today at the Bargello in Florence.<br><br>Comparison with our sculpture is compelling: the right arm of S55 would have probably originally been stretched outwards like in the Bargello example, although the presence of traces of clay on the chest in our case suggest that the left hand now missing would have once rested on the Saint’s chest, whereas it is placed on the left knee in the Bargello example. The latter, as well as another version in a private collection, has a more extensive rock formation, but like ours presents holes at the top of the rocks which would have presumably served for the insertion of flowers or twigs to enhance the naturalistic effect of the sculpture.<br><br>The three mentioned versions are the generally considered to be of comparable quality. The extension of the rocky background or the introduction of other elements like a tree-trunk or a lamb present in other versions might suggest a conscious attempt at making the arms less vulnerable: this would suggest that our version might represent an earlier stage of the development of the design.<br><br>In addition to the numerous surviving versions of our model, scholars have widely recognised the affinity existing with another group of figures of David or of St Jerome both placed in similar rocky settings.<br><br>The dark paint that once entirely covered S55 has been observed on other examples and might either reflect a taste for more sombre tones popular around 1500 due to the preaching of Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498), or reveal an original attempt at simulating the appearance of bronze.<br><br>Scholars have long acknowledged the Florentine origin of these sculptures, although attributions have varied. In more recent years, however, the comparison with the early work of Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570) has been the most convincing, especially when noting the detail of the teeth showing through the slightly parted lips, the columnar style of the neck, and the characteristic handling of facial features and hair.<br><br>Jacopo Tatti began to call himself Sansovino in homage to his master, Andrea Sansovino, with whom he trained in the early 1500s. His work, both as a sculptor and an architect, is a perfect example of the classically-inspired and perfectly measured style of the mature Renaissance. He worked in Florence and Rome, moving to Venice in 1527 where he became the city’s chief architect.
S57|1|1|Giovanni dalle Bande Nere (1498-1526) was a member of the Florentine Medici family and became a mercenary soldier (condottiere), who gained a brilliant reputation as an intrepid leader of his troops in the Italian wars. He was killed in action near Mantua in 1526, when leading an attack on the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. His nickname Giovanni of the Black Bands came when, following the death of Pope Leo X in 1521, he added black bands to his insignia as a sign of mourning. Giovanni was the father of Cosimo de’Medici (1519-1574), who was to become the first Grand Duke of Florence and who expended much energy on attempts to boost the posthumous reputation of his father. The figure, which shows Giovanni wearing a sort of antique style armour, was until very recently regarded as an important 16th-century terracotta model. It has however now been conclusively identified as the work of the nineteeth-century Florentine sculptor Giovanni Bastianini, who specialised in the production of sculptures in the Renaissance style. Many of these sculptures, including the Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, were placed on the market as genuine Renaissance works of art.
S60|1|1|This vibrant portrait bust of Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) first painter of Louis XIV, was made by his friend, the royal sculptor Antoine Coyzevox. It was presented to the French Royal Academy for approval in 1676 and served as the model for the marble bust commissioned from Coysevox as his reception piece in 1679 (today at the Louvre).<br><br>One of the founders of the French Academy, of which he became Chancellor in 1663, in the same year Le Brun was made Director of the Gobelins manufacture, where all the works of sculpture, tapestry and decorative arts destined for the royal residences were to be produced under his design and close control. He was one of the artists most trusted by Louis XIV’s minister Colbert, and one of the most important for the creation of a unified artistic style and coherent iconographic programme devoted to the celebration of the king.<br><br>Acknowledged by contemporaries as a perfect arbiter of taste, his understanding of ancient and modern Italian art proved extremely helpful to forge the new taste and style of both painters and sculptors. The influence of classical sculpture had a fundamental role in the training of French artists and Le Brun was instrumental also in the creation of the French Academy in Rome in 1666.<br><br>This portrait of Le Brun is a typically baroque work. Only a handful of works in terracotta by Coysevox survive, and this is generally regarded as one of the finest.
S62|1|1|This bust of a young woman belongs to a group of five surviving small bronze sculptures. They reflect a taste for idealised representations of female beauty, popular in Venice at the beginning of the sixteenth century both in sculpture and painting. This cast is comparable for the high level of finish to another female bust today at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It seems likely that the two were conceived as a pair and represented the prime versions for two other casts originally in the Este collection and today in Modena. A fifth surviving cast is in Berlin. The model for the head was probably devised in Venice by Antonio Lombardo (c. 1458–1516) who moved to Ferrara in 1506 to work for Alfonso d’Este. The second pair of bronzes, with some variants, might have therefore been taken to Ferrara to provide an example of Antonio’s skills or indeed have been modelled there and taken to Padua to be cast. The cast, with even, thick walls, was most likely made by Severo Calzetta (1465/75 – before 1538), known as Severo da Ravenna, around that time working in Padua. Technical aspects of the casting, such as the use of rectangular core pins and remains of the original plaster core material, strongly support this attribution. The small size and the high level of finish on all sides suggest that the head was made for close examination, probably to be displayed on a table in a collector’s cabinet.
S67|1|1|This charming composition is a writing stand, equipped with an inkwell in the form of the upturned mollusc shell, a candle-holder held by the satyress and, in the tree trunk with its open holes, a place for the storage of quill pens. It is a typical object to have been owned and used by a Renaissance scholar, who would no doubt also have especially appreciated the classical subject matter. Satyrs - half-men, half-goats - were stock figures in Greek and Latin literature and art and became equally popular in the Renaissance, being generally symbolic of savage and unbridled excess. However aound 1500 wild men started to be seen for a short while in a new light, reflecting interest in primitivism, at the start of the age of exploration. Thus satyrs began to be depicted together with their families, and it is possible that this inkstand, with the satyres and baby satyr, was once accompanied by a figure of a standing male satyr. The inkstand is a characteristic product of the workshop of Severo Calzetta, known as Severo da Ravenna, who trained in Padua but spent most of his career working in the city of Ravenna, where he developed a successful business producing bronzes in large numbers. Utensils such as his inkstands were produced as separate cast components which, as here, were screwed together to create the finished product. Many examples of the satyress inkstand survive but very few which are absolutely intact. In this example, the candleholder is a later replacement.
S72|1|1|This sculpture is considered the finest early Renaissance bronze in the Wallace Collection. The source for its composition is a Classical sculpture of seated nymph putting on her sandal. The Wallace sculpture’s finely chiselled hair and hands, the sensuous curves and polished surfaces of the body, and the tantalizing contrast of textures and colours, would have made it a treasured item in any collector’s cabinet in Renaissance Italy. It is unusual in its extensive application of virtuoso gilding. Originally, even the woman’s fingernails were gilded, which made the sculpture even more sophisticated.<br><br>The sculptor was obviously proud of his achievement. Unusually, he included a signature in a prominent place, in a cartouche at the back of the seat. That makes it one of very few signed bronzes that may be dated before 1500.
S73|1|1|This enticing male nude figure has long been thought to relate to the myth of the Niobids, killed to punish their mother Niobe for offending Leto. Wife of the King of Thebes and mother to 14 children, Niobe had boasted about her fecundity at a feast in honour of Leto. As a result of this affront to their mother, the gods Apollo and Diana slayed all of Niobe’s offspring with their arrows.<br><br>The composition relates to some extent to a classical prototype, a 1st-century Roman statue representing a Dying Niobid (now Glyptothek, Munich). However, S73 seems to be a highly stylised representation of extreme grief rather than the interpretation of a specific subject. There are five surviving casts of the same model, and ours is considered one of the finest, for its excellent modelling and extremely high finish.<br><br>These casts were for a long time grouped with a larger number of bronze sculptures linked to Francesco da Sant’Agata (c.1460/65–1524), who signed a beautiful boxwood figure of Hercules also in our collection (S273). However, Sant’Agata has now been correctly identified as a goldsmith, rather than a sculptor in bronze, and the group of figures once attributed to him might be too large and inhomogeneous for an attribution to just one workshop. There are, however, close affinities between S73 and the Hercules in their slim, lithe anatomies and the stylised, balletic poses.<br><br>Among the other bronzes, the closest to our Youth is a figure of a running man today in Brunswick (Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum), where the torso and head are virtually identical, suggesting that the same model might have been used, with variants in the position of the arms. This and another, very closely comparable, figure of Antaeus in a group with Hercules and Anteaus today in Washington (National Gallery of Art), share with S73 a common stylistic reference to the work of Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506), which suggest a Venetian origin for all of them.
S74|1|1|Numerous casts of this model survive today, demonstrating great and lasting appreciation for a very successful composition. The naturalistic pose chosen by the artists has great subtlety and elegance, enhanced by the contrast between the smooth surfaces of the body and the finely detailed area of the head and arms crossed above it, framing the face. This private gesture conveys at the same time a glimpse into a psychological state and great physicality as the naked body is offered to the viewer without barriers, with great erotic charge.<br><br>The very fine modelling of the face, hands and hair contrasts with the somewhat rough modelling of the feet. The area between the thighs has not been reworked despite the presence of various casting flaws.<br><br>Some art historians have stressed the link between this brilliant male nude and Michelangelo’s figure of a Dying Slave for the unfinished tomb of Pope Julius II. Others have downplayed this connection, noting that the basic pose was widely known already in the early 16th century and dates back to classical prototypes, in particular a figure of Narcissus also called The Genius of Eternal Rest, a Roman marble of the late 2nd – early 3rd century AD today at the Louvre.<br><br>However, it is possible that, just like Michelangelo’s Slave, this figure might have also been conceived to serve some architectural function, for example as a support in a cabinet.<br><br>The current attribution to Prieur is based on stylistic affinity with other male and femals figures once attributed to the Master of the Genre figures (see S128-30). The reddish patina found on almost all the surviving casts also points towards a French origin. Even before Prieur became almost universally named as the author for these figures, another statuette also in our collection, the figure of an Acrobat (S91), had been closely linked to the Youth due to the peculiar anatomy of the slender bodies and the smooth finish of the modelling. Particularly close to S74 is also another model attributed to Prieur representing Bacchus with a Panther (a cast is in the National Gallery, Washington).<br><br>A cast of this model appears prominently in a painting by Rubens, A Bearded Man in profile holding a bronze figure (Private Collection).
S80|1|1|Previously catalogued as candlestick bases, S80 and its pair S81 are in fact probably middle sections from a pair of fire dogs (andirons), large metal supports which would stand in front of fires and on which logs could be laid. They are very close in design to the middle sections on a pair of firedogs in the Bargello Museum in Florence, which are attributed to the Venetian sculptor Niccolò Roccatagliata and which consist of three sections, a wide base constructed from fantastic dragons, the middle sections, and standing figures of winged boys (putti). The Venetian Republic’s large armaments industry, based in and around the shipyards in the Arsenal, led to the establishment of numerous bronze foundries. The skills required for the casting of cannon and other ordinance could easily be applied to the design and fabrication of sculptures in bronze, not only figures but also large and small functional objects such as candlesticks. These objects make use of a debased classicising style employing motifs including small children (putti), swags, shells, rams’ and satyr heads. Many of the designs continued to be used over several generations, making the date of casts difficult to determine in most cases.
S81|1|1|Previously catalogued as candlestick bases, S81 and its pair S80 are in fact probably middle sections from a pair of fire dogs (andirons), large metal supports which would stand in front of fires and on which logs could be laid. They are very close in design to the middle sections on a pair of firedogs in the Bargello Museum in Florence, which are attributed to the Venetian sculptor Niccolò Roccatagliata and which consist of three sections, a wide base constructed from fantastic dragons, the middle sections, and standing figures of winged boys (putti). The Venetian Republic’s large armaments industry, based in and around the shipyards in the Arsenal, led to the establishment of numerous bronze foundries. The skills required for the casting of cannon and other ordinance could easily be applied to the design and fabrication of sculptures in bronze, not only figures but also large and small functional objects such as candlesticks. These objects make use of a debased classicising style employing motifs including small children (putti), swags, shells, rams’ and satyr heads. Many of the designs continued to be used over several generations, making the date of casts difficult to determine in most cases.
S85|1|1|This diminutive yet very dynamic statuette, where a blindfold Cupid precariously balances himself on the tail of a dolphin a mere moment before shooting his arrow, is considered the work of a Florentine artist, Francesco Fanelli, but was probably made in London in the mid-seventeenth century. Representations of a young boy (often a Cupid) on a dolphin were common in the Antiquity and were very popular during the Renaissance in Italy. However, the idea of a blindfolded Cupid only dates from the Middle Ages and is linked to a negative interpretation of the dangerous nature of carnal love as well as to the identification of Cupid with Fortune.<br><br>Born in Florence in 1577, Fanelli was in England from 1632 until c.1643 working for Charles I and private patrons. Numerous small-scale bronze sculptures, many of which involved an equine element, such as a Cupid on Horseback and a St George and the dragon, were mentioned in an inventory of the cabinet of King Charles I drawn in 1639 and attributed to “ffrancisco the one eyed Italian”. Fanelli’s models were very popular also with private collectors and probably had a pivotal role in the diffusion of a taste for small-scale bronzes in the country.<br><br>The Cupid on a Dolphin, however, does not appear in the inventories of Charles I and the first mention of this model dates to the late eighteenth century, although a variant with the Cupid sitting on the dolphin appeared in 1685 on an English clock now in the V&A. Numerous versions of this model and the seated Cupid variant survive today in public and private collections. The documented models and S85 all share the same dynamism in the modelling and almost black lacquer and there are strong affinities in the anatomy of the Cupid figures.
S91|1|1|This statuette is said to have been Wallace’s last acquisition. He was a keen admirer of Renaissance bronzes, contrary to the 4th Marquess of Hertford, and gathered an important collection of pre-1700 bronze sculpture.<br><br>A man standing on his hands is a very unusual theme in sculpture. It may have been inspired by a painting, known only from a drawing by Primaticcio (1504–1570), representing the Masquerade of Persepolis. This North Italian artist, who worked in France, included men performing a handstand in his composition.<br><br>The sculptor brilliantly expressed the balance of the posture in the angle of the legs, and the backwards, off-centre turn of the head.
S112|1|1|First recorded in 1872, when lent to the Bethnal Green Museum
S113|1|1|Giambologna, as he became popularly known in his adopted country, spent his entire career in Italy, settling in Florence, where he became the court sculptor to the Medici Grand Dukes. He was one of the greatest and most influential sculptors of all time. A quintessential mannerist artist, he created complex yet perfectly balanced compositions, in which he took the materials in which he generally worked, marble and bronze, to their limits. He also ran an extraordinarily efficient workshop system, producing large numbers of small bronze versions of his most popular compositions. Valued by the Medici rulers as diplomatic gifts, these were sent all over Europe, spreading Giambologna’s reputation more widely.<br><br>This group is a reduction in bronze of Giambologna’s greatest masterpiece in marble, the Rape (i.e. Abduction) of a Sabine Woman, installed in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence in 1583. The subject is from early Roman history and tells of how Romulus, in order to ensure the survival of the small Roman state, arranged for a feast to which the Romans’ neighbours the Sabines were invited. At a prearranged signal, the unmarried Sabine women were carried off. Giambologna himself was in fact indifferent to the subject, creating the group ‘solely to demonstrate the excellence of his art’. The Rape of the Sabine is an astonishing technical feat, and the first sculpture made entirely in the round, and with no principal viewpoint. Famous from the time of its unveiling in January 1583, many small-scale bronze versions of it were made.
S118|1|1|This gilt-bronze group forms a pair with another (S124) representing episodes from the Labours of Hercules.<br>In his quest for redemption having committed murder in a fit of madness, the Greek hero Hercules had to complete a series of tasks or Labours. In the course of his atonement, he confronted numerous centaurs, most famously the ferryman Nessus who tried to rape Hercules’ wife Deianira, paying for his betrayal with his life. However, Nessus was killed by Hercules with an arrow, therefore our group must instead represent the hero’s struggle with another centaur, Eurythion whom Hercules encounters and defeats in two separate Parerga (ancillary incidents) relating to the fourth and fifth Labours. In both cases, Eurythion threatened one of Hercules’ s love interests and, as these were sometimes identified with Deianira, the episodes were often confused.<br>S118 closely follows a model designed by Giambologna (1529-1608) and carved in marble for Grand Duke Ferdinando I de Medici (1549-1609) in 1594-99, today in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. The original concept for the group, however, seems to have originated in a silver cast made by Giambologna over 20 years earlier for Francesco de Medici (1541-1587). The silver cast was part of an unfinished series of 12 Labours of Hercules destined for the Tribuna of the Uffizi and is now lost. However, a fragmentary terracotta model survives today at the British Museum and matches the recorded dimension of the silver cast, allowing us to appreciate the differences between the original model and the marble version.<br>Today, numerous bronze casts survive, of around the same height as the terracotta and the lost silver original, some of which have very early provenances, suggesting that bronze reductions of this model were probably produced already during Giambologna’s lifetime.<br>Our pair of bronzes, however, belongs to a distinct group of casts of larger dimensions representing five Labours. These larger models seem to have been designed in the 1630s by Giambologna’s follower and heir Pietro Tacca (1577-1640) who had been commissioned a new series of Labours from Grand Duke Cosimo II (1590-1621) in 1614. Casts from the models created for this commission seem to have been also requested by Prince Henry of England who, having received a group of bronze casts after Giambologna’s models in 1612, immediately ordered more bronze sculptures from the workshop that had by then passed to Tacca. However, documentary evidence seems to suggest that the commission was never completed by Pietro and that the models had not yet been cast by the time of his death in 1640.<br>If certain stylistic elements of our bronze, like the characteristic treatment of the equine part of the centaur and the naturalistic terrasse, are typical of Pietro’s work, the facture and surface treatment of the cast suggest that it was most likely cast by Pietro’s son Ferdinando (1619-1686) and that would push the dating of the surviving casts to c.1640-50. Of the surviving large-scale versions, S118 is generally regarded as one if not the best in terms of quality of finish and detail.
S121|1|1|Probably first recorded at Hertford House in 1834; certainly recorded in 1870
S124|1|1|This gilt-bronze group forms a pair with another (S118) representing episodes from the Labours of Hercules, an extremely popular mythological subject since the early Renaissance. In his quest for redemption after having committed murder in a fit of madness, the Greek hero Hercules had to complete a series of Twelve tasks or Labours.<br><br>In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the river god Acheloüs himself recounts the story of his fight against Hercules. Acheloüs and Hercules had been competing for the hand of the beautiful Deianeira in a contest organised by Deianeira’s father. During the illustrious fight, the struggling Acheloüs turned himself first into a bull-headed man, then into a serpent, and finally into a bull. This bronze sculpture captures the moment Hercules managed to force his opponent to the ground by grabbing his horns. The horn Hercules ripped off in the struggle would become the cornucopia, from then on a ubiquitous symbol of abundance.<br><br>S124 and S118 are both re-elaborations of models designed by Pietro Tacca (1577-1640) in the 1610s as part of a series of bronze Labours commissioned by Grand Duke Cosimo II (1590-1621) in 1614. Pietro’s groups in turn closely derived from models created in the 1570s by the great sculptor Giambologna (1529-1608) for an unfinished series of 12 silver groups with the Labours of Hercules destined for the Tribuna of the Uffizi and now lost.<br><br>If certain stylistic elements of our bronze, like the naturalistic terrasse, are typical of Pietro’s work, the facture and surface treatment of the cast suggest that it was most likely cast by Pietro’s son Ferdinando (1619-1686) and that would push the dating of the surviving casts to c.1640-50.
S127|1|1|Born in Flanders, Giambologna worked for almost the whole of his career in Italy in the service of the Medici. He became the most influential sculptor of his time, famous for his monumental statues and for his elegant small bronze statuettes, which were made in large numbers and disseminated throughout Europe, often as diplomatic gifts. This small figure is the finest of several smaller bronzes associated with Giambologna now in the Wallace Collection. The artist was preoccupied throughout his career with the theme of a nude woman, perhaps Venus, who dries herself after bathing. The subject was ideally suited to his innovative concept of the figura serpentinata, a sinuously elegant figural composition capable of being appreciated from a multiplicity of viewpoints.
S128|1|1|Initially thought to be the work of a Flemish artist influenced by Italian sculpture, a group of bronze statuettes of women caught in everyday actions, once attributed to the so-called “Master of the Genre Figures”, is now solidly ascribed to the French sculptor Barthélémy Prieur. The attribution is based on the comparison with the sculptures for the funerary monument of Anne de Montmorency in the Church of the Celestines in Paris (1570-80s), particularly for the facial features.<br><br>Prieur’s inventory après décès, published in 1949, lists a series of small-scale bronze statuettes of men and women. Although the inventory does not describe the subjects, their height is given and corresponds to that of the various surviving models. This has been cross-referenced with the 1700 inventory of Andre Le Notre who owned many casts whose description and height can be identified with the surviving bronzes and matched the details given in Prieur’s own inventory.<br><br>This cast is generally regarded as the most finely detailed of all twelve known versions of this model. The face and hair are especially finely detailed, with one of the plaits having been chased so that it cuts into the body beneath.<br>Prieur worked in Rome and Turin during the 1550s and 60s and the lesson of the antique, evident in his naturalistic and every-day approach to the theme of the seated nymph, is evident as much as the influence of Giambologna’s figures of women at the bath.
S129|1|1|This lively and charming little bronze of a mother holding her child as she helps him urinate belongs to a group of small-scale genre figures previously thought to be the work of a Flemish artist influenced by Italian sculpture, and now attributed to the French sculptor Barthélemy Prieur (see also S128). The contrast between the mannerist elegance of the long-limbed female figure and the vivacious child who seems to want to wriggle out of his mother’s hold, is particularly captivating despite the humble subject.<br><br>The attribution is based on comparison with known works by this artist, particularly the funerary monument of Anne de Montmorency in Paris (1570-1580s), for the facial features and body type of the woman, and with the geniuses on the cenotaph of Dominique de Vic (now Louvre) for the round face, curved forehead and thick, curly hair of the little boy. Very similar facial features also appear on a figurine of a young boy fishing, also in our Collection (S131).<br><br>Prieur was a gifted bronze sculptor and his posthumous inventory lists a series of small-scale bronze statuettes of men and women and even animals, as well as numerous functional objects in the classicising style.<br><br>Few other casts are known of this model, which was one of numerous subjects now attributed to Prieur listed in the inventory of royal garden designer André Le Notre in 1700. The finish and detail of our cast are of very high quality, also compared to most other surviving examples, and contribute to elevate the humble subject.
S130|1|1|Formerly thought to represent Diana and Callisto, this group has been linked to a series of small-scale genre figures previously thought to be the work of a Flemish artist influenced by Italian sculpture, and now attributed to the French sculptor Barthélemy Prieur (see also S128 and S129). Numerous casts of this model survive, ours being one of the finest. Although the subject remains hard to identify, the struggle between the two female figures offers a brilliant opportunity to study their anatomy and reveals the influence of the Antique. A drawing of the group by Saint Aubin describes the composition as “d’après l’antique”.<br><br>The attribution to Prieur is based on comparison with known works by this artist, particularly the funerary monument of Anne de Montmorency in Paris (1570-80s), for the facial features and body type of the women. Stylistic comparison with the smooth limbs and small heads of the other female statuettes and groups once attributed to the so-called Master of the Genre Figures, suggest that this model belongs to the same hand.<br><br>The group can be seen in a watercolour by Olof Fridsberg entitled Ulla Tessin in her Study (1763, National Museum Stockholm). A cast very close to ours is also kept in the same museum and is documented in the collection of Gustav Tessin in 1757. As ambassador and royal art dealer, Tessin was very familiar with the Parisian art market, which also supports the idea of a French origin for the model.<br><br>Prieur was a gifted bronze sculptor and his inventory après décès, published in 1949, listed a series of small-scale bronze statuettes of men and women as well as numerous functional objects in the classicising style.
S134|1|1|The general inspiration for this bronze figure of a sleeping Cupid can be found in numerous antique marbles representing the Roman god of Love, often asleep on Hercules’ lion skin which the hero had tossed aside to woo his love interest, Omphale. Though until very recently thought to be Italian, the elongated proportions of the body, smooth surfaces contrasted by fine details, and characteristic treatment of the curls of hair all point to French sculptor Barthélemy Prieur as the author of this model.<br><br>These characteristics are shared by a group of bronze figures and groups by the same artist in our Collection (see, for example, S128–S130).<br><br>Prieur was a gifted bronze sculptor and his posthumous inventory, published in 1949, lists a series of small-scale bronze statuettes of men and women as well as numerous functional objects in the classicising style. He trained in Rome, where he had ample oportunity to study antique sculpture, and worked in Turin before moving to Paris, where from 1594 he worked for king Henri IV.<br><br>In the inventory of royal garden designer André Le Notre, drawn in 1700 and containing helpful descriptions of many bronze models identified with surviving casts now generally attributed to Prieur, is also a group consisting of a sleeping Cupid with an older boy looking over him. Few versions of this group have survived (one was on the art market in 2012), whereas the individual figures seem to have been cast separately more frequently, as in the case of our Sleeping Cupid.
S152|1|1|The tall, slim figure of St John, characteristic of Gothic art, comes from a châsse adorned with champlevé enamel plaques which forms part of the treasury of Rouen Cathedral. (Champlevé is a technique involving pouring liquid enamel into grooves engraved on a metal surface.) The St John was once one of twelve figures of Apostles, set under arches on the sides of the châsse which is in the form of the nave of a church. The châsse was altered in 1776 to receive the relics of St Romanus, at which point this statuette may have been replaced by a cast.
S154|1|1|Charles IX (1550-74) acceded to the throne of France at the age of ten. Weak in health and character, he was dominated by his mother, Catherine de’Medici and by the duc de Guise, the leader of the Catholic faction at a time of intense religious strife in France. For all the splendour of Charles’s costume, with his laurel crown and military armour, the thin lips and suspicious eyes of this masterful portrait brilliantly suggest the young king’s brittle and nervous character. This is one of the finest surviving works of Germain Pilon who was sculpteur du roi under both Charles IX and his successor, Henri III.
S161|1|1|This firedog and its companion, S162, are reproductions of models originally designed in 1649-50 by Alessandro Algardi for a set of firedogs for Philip IV of Spain (1605–1665).<br><br>Born in Bologna, where he trained under Lodovico Carracci, Algardi moved to Rome in 1625, where he rapidly established himself as the principal rival of Gian Lorenzo Bernini as a portrait artist. From the 1640s, Algardi began working for the Pope and after the election of Pope Innocent X (1644), he replaced Bernini in the papal favour. His style, tempering the realism of the High Baroque with a strongly classicising vein, was particularly popular in France.<br><br>Jupiter is represented with his symbolic animal, the eagle and on a sphere representing the inchoate world, in turn supported on rocks resting on the shoulders of his vanquished enemies, the Titans who had reveolted against the Olympian gods.<br><br>The general inspiration for the figure of Jupiter can be found in the Giustiniani Jupiter, a universally acclaimed classical representation of the father of the gods, then in a Roman collection.<br><br>According to Algardi’s biographer, Alessandro Bellori (1613-1696), it was the painter Diego Velàzquez (1599-1660) during his sojourn in Rome who commissioned the firedogs. A second commission followed, left unfinished by the master and completed by two of his assistants, for a second pair of groups representing Neptune and Cybele. The four groups where then adapted to serve as fountain decorations representing the Elements (Jupiter: Fire, Juno: Air; Neptune: Water and Cybele: Earth), and sent to the royal residence at Aranjuez, near Madrid. There they remained until the end of the Second World War when they were stolen and disappeared.<br><br>The circumstances of the commission and the fact that the second set was not completed by Algardi himself might explain why only the first set, with Jupiter and Juno, was replicated outside of Spain.<br><br>The groups were particularly popular in France, where Algardi enjoyed great fame throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and where silver versions were documented in the posthumous inventory of Cardinal Mazarin already in 1661. These casts are now lost, but it was probably through Mazarin’s versions that the model became popular in France.<br><br>Today, only four sets survive, and ours is generally considered to be the finest. The groups can be traced back at least to 1689 when they were recorded in the inventory of the Grand Dauphin. After the death of the Grand Dauphin in 1711, the sculptures entered the royal collection, as the royal inventory numbers ‘297’ and ‘298’ inscribed on the back of their bases still demonstrate.<br><br>In 1785 Queen Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) ordered them to be brought from the Château de Meudon to her apartments at the Trianon and it was probably here that the sculptor Houdon (1741-1828) repatinated them and repaired the broken arm of Jupiter.<br><br>After the Revolution, the firedogs were used in 1796 as a payment to the citizen de Chapeaurouge (1744-1805) and thus entered the art market. They were probably purchased by 4th Marquess by 1870.<br>
S162|1|1|Together with its pair, S161, these firedogs are reproductions of models originally designed in 1649-50 by Alessandro Algardi for a set of firedogs for Philip IV of Spain (1605–1665).<br><br>Born in Bologna, where he trained under Lodovico Carracci, Algardi moved to Rome in 1625, where he rapidly established himself as the principal rival of Gian Lorenzo Bernini as a portrait artist. From the 1640s, Algardi began working for the Pope and after the election of Pope Innocent X (1644), he replaced Bernini in papal favour. His style, tempering the realism of the High Baroque with a strongly classicising vein was particularly popular in France.<br><br>The Goddess is here represented seated on her symbolic animal, the peacock, and on a sphere representing the inchoate world, in turn supported on rocks resting on the shoulders of the Winds. In some creation myths, the Winds had conspired with the Titans, defeated by Jupiter in the other group (S161), against the Olympian gods.<br><br>The general inspiration for the main figures can be found in universally acclaimed classical representations of the two gods, the Giustiniani Jupiter and the Cesi Juno, both then in Roman collections.<br><br>According to Algardi’s biographer, Alessandro Bellori (1613-1696), it was the painter Diego Velàzquez (1599-1660) during his sojourn in Rome who commissioned the firedogs. A second commission followed, left unfinished by the master and completed by two of his assistants, for a second pair of groups representing Neptune and Cybele. The four groups where then adapted to serve as fountain decorations representing the Elements (Jupiter: Fire, Juno: Air; Neptune: Water and Cybele: Earth), and sent to the royal residence at Aranjuez, near Madrid. There they remained until the end of the Second World War when they were stolen and disappeared.<br><br>The circumstances of the commission and the fact that the second set was not completed by Algardi himself might explain why only the first set, with Jupiter and Juno, was replicated outside of Spain.<br><br>The groups were particularly popular in France, where Algardi enjoyed great fame throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and where silver versions were documented in the posthumous inventory of Cardinal Mazarin already in 1661. These casts are now lost, but it was probably through Mazarin’s versions that the model became popular in France.<br><br>Today, only four sets survive, and ours is generally considered to be the finest. The groups can be traced back at least to 1689 when they were recorded in the inventory of the Grand Dauphin. After the death of the Grand Dauphin in 1711, the sculptures entered the royal collection, as the royal inventory numbers ‘297’ and ‘298’ inscribed on the back of their bases still demonstrate.<br><br>In 1785 Queen Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) ordered them to be brought from the Château de Meudon to her apartments at the Trianon and it was probably here that the sculptor Houdon (1741-1828) repatinated them and repaired the broken arm of Jupiter.<br><br>After the Revolution, the firedogs were used in 1796 as a payment to the citizen de Chapeaurouge (1744-1805) and thus entered the art market. They were probably purchased by 4th Marquess by 1870.<br>
S165|1|1|Contrary to the great equestrian monuments erected in his honour, which were systematically destroyed during the Revolution, many portrait busts of Louis XIV survive today. Antoine Coysevox made a first marble portrait of the king for the Parliament of Burgundy in the 1670s, and another one in 1693, for display on the Grand Staircase at Versailles, the latter becoming the reference point for all subsequent portrait busts of the king.<br><br>Our bronze portrait, originally gilded, was made by Coysevox a few years later and is a perfect example of his official portraits: the dynamism of the pose, with the head turning swiftly to the left and the almost arrogant look of the king all contribute towards conveying a clear sense of majesty. Other elements, such as the fleur de lys on the armour are common regal symbols. Coysevox’s interest in naturalism can be appreciated in the way the facial features of the king, by then 61 years old, accurately reflect his age.<br><br>Bronze had been for centuries the preferred solution for official portraiture. Here, the material brings added refinement to the already powerful impact of the excellent modeling and finish. This is visible specifically in the exquisite modelling and finish of the intricate lace of the cravat and in the flowing curls of the king’s wig.<br><br>In his official portraits Coysevox manifests a more rigorous classicizing approach, which was favoured by the king, but his dynamism and attention to detail make his works always very lively. It might be interesting to compare this official portrait with the much more intimate terracotta bust of Charles Le Brun (S60).<br><br>This bust seems to be the only version of this model and can probably be identified with a bronze portrait bust presented by Coysevox to the Salon in 1699. It was acquired by the third Marquess of Hertford, possibly from the 1823 Beckford sale, and later on was lent by the fourth Marquess to the Musée Retrospectif exhibition in Paris in 1865.<br>
S166|1|1|After the successful wars led by Luis XIV during the 1670s, the need to celebrate the political and military power of the king across the entire French territory found expression in a series of equestrian monuments commissioned by all municipalities.<br><br>Virtually all these monuments derive from one prototype devised by Charles Harduin-Mansart (1646-1708), who, as the first Architect to the king, was responsible for ensuring that all the monuments responded to the same artistic style and purpose. Reductions of these monuments became favourite items in aristocratic collections of the time.<br><br>This bronze is a reduction of the famous equestrian monument commissioned in 1688 by the city of Lyon. Based on Mansart’s designs, it was modeled by Martin Desjardins and cast by the founder Roger Schabol. Of Dutch origins, by 1688 Desjardins already had a long and solid career behind him. He had been admitted into the Academy in 1671 and after becoming a professor he was made director in 1681. He was a regular name in the most prominent royal commissions, especially for the sculptural decoration of Versailles.<br><br>The model for the equestrian monument was ready according to contract specifications by 1691, and the casting was completed by 1694. The statue, however, was only erected in 1713, and the monument only completed in 1720.<br><br>Like all equestrian monuments to the French kings, this too was destroyed in 1792 and the surviving bronze reductions are all the more important because are the only evidence of its original appearance. Most of them, like ours, reproduce only the equestrian portrait itself, but a complete reduction of the monument, including the pedestal decorated with allegorical figures, is still in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Lyon.<br><br>The prototype for the monument designed by Harduin-Mansart clearly is the statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, with the rider without stirrups and with all’antica (in the antique style) armour. The reference to antiquity is however mediated, in Desjardins’ interpretation, by the constant reference to the present, in the use of a contemporary peruke and the detail of the raying sun, the emblem of the king, on the saddle.<br><br>The sale of the contents of Desjardins’ workshop in 1695 suggests that reductions of the monument were produced before its final installation and perhaps under Desjardins’ own supervision. Other reductions, however, were produced around the same time also in Schabol’s workshop where the original model had been retained. In 1699 the Elector of Bavaria bought a version of this statuette from Schabol where the artist substituted the Elector’s features to those of the king. Comparison between our version and the signed one made for the Elector, and with another example at the National Gallery in Washington sharing the same socle, suggests that our bronze too came from Schabol’s foundry. In making replicas of the monument the founder was so accurate that he updated the facial features of the king, therefore providing also a key element to date the bronzes. Our bronze must have been produced rather late in the life of the king, on account of the detail of the sunken mouth, caused by the loss of teeth in his later years.<br>
S168|1|1|This vase is one of a pair (both in the Wallace Collection) depicting the Triumph of Thetis, a sea-nymph who was the mother of Achilles. She is shown accompanied by her followers, fellow sea-nymphs (Nereids), Tritons, marine centaurs, a marine goat (capricorn), dolphins and little children. The vases have similarities in composition to two much larger marble vases completed by François Girardon (1628-1715) in 1683 for the gardens at Versailles. Probably cast after the sculptor’s death, they may well preserve the compositions of Girardon’s original wax models for the marble vases, and are notable for the freshness and vivacity of the handling, which contrasts with the heavy formality of much French sculpture of this period.
S176|1|1|In 1714 the French Academy offered a poetry prize on the subject of the vow made by Louis XIII in 1638 to re-decorate the Choir of Notre-Dame if a son was born to him (as indeed happened that year). The winner of the prize was the now forgotten abbé du Jarry, while the runner-up was the young Voltaire who subsequently ridiculed du Jarry’s work. This sculpture was the prize. It comprises allegorical figures of Religion (left), Piety (right), Fame and an angel. Fame trumpets the achievement, while the other figures hold medals bearing busts of Louis XIII and Louis XIV and images relating to the vow and to the Academy itself.
S188|1|1|Obtaining full-sized marble copies of antique sculpture had been a long-lasting aspiration of many French kings since the sixteenth century. Numerous copies were commissioned for Louis XIV through the French Academy in Rome in the second half of the seventeenth.<br>The marble copy of the Crouching Venus was carved by the king’s sculptor, Antoine Coysevox and displayed in the Parterre du Nord at the Château de Versailles paired with a copy of another famed antiquity, the Arrotino or Knife-grinder made by the Florentine sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652–1725). Whereas Foggini surely copied an original at the time in the Uffizi, it is uncertain which of the many existing antique variants of the Crouching Venus served as the model for Coysevox.<br>The two originals were unrelated, but their pairing at Versailles popularised them as a pendant often reproduced in small-scale bronze replicas such as our pair.<br>Our bronzes, probably made in France in the early eighteenth century were acquired by the 3rd Marquess.
S189|1|1|In 1684 the then Director of the French Academy in Rome commissioned a copy of the famous antique sculpture known as the Arrotino (Knife-grinder) at that time in the Uffizi in Florence for King Louis XIV.<br>The marble copy of the Arrotino was made by the Florentine sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini and was displayed in the Parterre du Nord at the Château de Versailles paired with a marble copy of the Crouching Venus, another famed antiquity, carved by the king’s sculptor, Antoine Coysevox (1640–1720).<br>The two originals were unrelated, but their pairing at Versailles popularised them as a pendant often reproduced in small-scale bronze replicas such as our pair. Our bronzes, probably made in France in the early eighteenth century were acquired by the 3rd Marquess.
S191|1|1|These gilt-bronze groups are reductions of a pair of over-life-size marble sculptures made for Louis XIV: the Marly Horses by Guillaume I Coustou.<br><br>With his brother Nicolas, Coustou began his artistic training in Paris under their uncle, the royal sculptor Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720). He then completed his training in Rome where he worked for Pierre Legros (1666-1719) whose style greatly influenced him. After his return to Paris in 1700 he began working with his uncle and immediately made a name for himself in the carving of brilliantly dynamic marbles. He became member of the Academy in 1704 and was later made a Professor (1706) and Rector in 1733. He was mostly employed by the bâtiments du roi but also produced important funerary monuments for private patrons. He continued to enjoy great success after Louis XIV’s death and in the 1730s was the most famous sculptor working for the court.<br><br>Commissioned in 1739 to be displayed on the terrace of the horse-pond in the Park at the château de Marly, the two groups represented the wild forces of nature and were destined to replace two earlier groups by Coysevox, which in 1719 had been moved to the Tuileries. Under Napoleon, the Horses were installed at the head of the Champs Elisées in Paris in 1794 where they assumed a new meaning, celebrating "la gloire de la France" and becoming powerful symbols of France itself.<br><br>Generally regarded among the greatest masterpieces of French eighteenth-century art, the Marly Horses were already replicated in small bronze groups during the eighteenth century. However, bronze reductions of these groups further multiplied after the Revolution and the relocation of the originals to the Champs Elisées. The famous founder Pierre-François Feuchère was involved in the production of gilded versions from at least as early as 1813, when he supplied a pair to the Würzburger Residenz (Bavaria, Germany). Our groups surely produce the lavish effect Feuchère himself described when suggesting the addition of gilding, although their facture and detail are not of particularly high quality. They were bought by the third Marquess and appear in his post-mortem inventory in 1842, listed as “ormolu ornaments”.<br>
S192|1|1|These gilt-bronze groups are reductions of a pair of over life-size marble sculptures made for Louis XIV: the Marly Horses by Guillaume I Coustou.<br><br>With his brother Nicolas, Coustou began his artistic training in Paris under their uncle, the sculptor Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720). He then completed his training in Rome where he worked for Pierre Legros (1666-1719) whose style greatly influenced him.<br><br>After his return to Paris in 1700 he began working with his uncle and immediately made a name for himself in the carving of brilliantly dynamic marbles. He became member of the Academy in 1704 and was later made a Professor (1706) and Rector in 1733. He was mostly employed by the bâtiments du roi but also produced important funerary monuments for private patrons. He continued to enjoy great success after Louis XIV’s death and in the 1730s was the most famous sculptor working for the court.<br><br>Commissioned in 1739 to be displayed on the terrace of the horse-pond in the Park at the château de Marly, the two groups represented the wild forces of nature and were destined to replace two earlier groups by Coysevox, which in 1719 had been moved to the Tuileries. Under Napoleon, the Horses were installed at the head of the Champs Elisées in Paris in 1794 and assumed a new meaning, celebrating la gloire de la France and becoming powerful symbols of France itself.<br><br>Generally regarded among the greatest masterpieces of French eighteenth-century art, the Marly Horses were already replicated in small bronze groups during the eighteenth century. However, bronze reductions of these groups further multiplied after the Revolution and the relocation of the originals to the Champs Elisées. The famous founder Pierre François Feuchère was involved in the production of gilded versions from at least as early as 1813, when he supplied a pair to the Würzburger Residenz (Bavaria, Germany).<br><br>Our groups surely produce the lavish effect Feuchère himself described when suggesting the addition of gilding, although their facture and detail are not of particularly high quality. They were bought by the third Marquess and they appear in his post-mortem inventory in 1842, listed as “ormolu ornaments”.
S194|1|1|This elegant composition represents a variant of the theme of the “Punishment of Cupid” in which the god of love is chastised (sometimes quite harshly) for the havoc caused by his arrows.<br><br>The goddess Venus is here identified by a complete catalogue of her attributes and symbols related to love: the yoke of her chariot is in the shape of a scallop shell reminding us that she was born from the sea foam and is engraved with a flaming heart at the back. At her feet, the billing doves are also her traditional attributes, as are the roses in the garland that crowns her head.<br><br>The pose of the female figure and the type of the Cupid are closely related to those of a bronze group with the Abduction of Helen today at the Louvre which has been linked to Pierre Puget (1620-1694) and Philippe Bertrand (1663-1724, see also S176). However, there are strong affinities also with the work of other contemporary sculptors known to have created numerous original models for small-scale bronze sculptures in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, such as Corneille van Clève (1645-1732, see also S186) and Robert Le Lorrain (1666-1743, see also S185).<br><br>Small-scale bronzes of this period all share common elements in the elegant, theatrical poses and the subtly erotic mythological themes.
S202|1|1|From a group of four small bronze figures in the Collection, all of which show infant boys or putti playing a variety of musical instruments (the others, S203, S204 and S205, holding up a shell, playing the flute, and playing the triangle respectively).<br><br>The models for the figures seem to have originated in Rome, in the circle of sculptors such as Alessandro Algardi (1595 – 1654) and François Duquesnoy (1597 – 1643), but these casts were almost certainly made, and mounted on their bases, in France around the middle of the eighteenth century.<br><br>As there are substantial differences in the body-type of the figures between the two pairs, and since S204 and S205 have drapery acting as cache-sexe, missing here and in S203, it is possible that models of different origin were brought together.<br><br>Cast as pairs or quartets and often also incorporated into designs for candelabras, examples of these bronzes began to appear in sale catalogues in Paris from 1767.
S203|1|1|From a group of four small bronze figures in the Collection, all of which show infant boys or putti playing a variety of musical instruments (the others, S202, S204 and S205, blowing into a double conch shell, playing the flute, and playing the triangle respectively).<br><br>The models for the figures seem to have originated in Rome, in the circle of sculptors such as Alessandro Algardi (1595 – 1654) and François Duquesnoy (1597 – 1643), but these casts were almost certainly made, and mounted on their bases, in France around the middle of the eighteenth century.<br><br>As there are substantial differences in the body-type of the figures between the two pairs, and since S204 and S205 have drapery acting as cache-sexe, missing here and in S202, it is possible that models of different origin were brought together.<br><br>Cast as pairs or quartets and often also incorporated into designs for candelabras, examples of these bronzes began to appear in sale catalogues in Paris from 1767.
S227|1|1|The young warrior of this bust can be easily identified as Alexander III of Macedonia (356–323 BC), known as The Great.<br>Having unified Greece, Asia Minor and Egypt under his control, Alexander – who could count the great philosopher Aristotle as his tutor – became king of Persia at the age of 25. Various symbols on his helmet point to this identification, as does the clasp on his cloak which might represent his father, Philip II of Macedon (r. 359–336 BC).<br>The bust has been linked by some scholars to the work of French court sculptor François Girardon (128–1715), who in 1699 exhibited at the Salon a fragmentary antique porphyry head of Alexander which he had “restored” adding a green marble and bronze armour and cloak.<br>Whether or not the model for our bronze was made in the circle of Girardon, the composition is consistent with the way Alexander was portrayed in the late seventeenth century, when the image of Alexander was often symbolically used to celebrate the glory of the Sun King, Louis XIV.
S228|1|1|Napoleon Bonaparte is shown in this statuette with the attributes of the Arts and Sciences. The companion statuette of Empress Marie-Louise (1791–1847), the second wife of Emperor Napoleon whom he married in 1810, shows her with with attributes of the Art of Paintings. They are one of five pairs cast in 1812 for Napoleon's palaces. Both figures derive from Roman antique bronzes in the collection of Dominique-Vivant Denon, Napoleon's Minister of Fine Arts, on whose initiative they were probably made. The casting is by an obscure goldsmith named Lacour and the high-quality chasing by François-Aimé Damerat.
S229|1|1|The Empress Marie-Louise (1791–1847) was the second wife of Emperor Napoleon, whom she married in 1810. She is shown in this statuette with attributes of the Art of Painting. The companion statuette of Napoleon, shows the Emperor with attributes of the Arts and Sciences. They are one of five pairs cast in 1812 for Napoleon's palaces. Both figures derive from Roman antique bronzes in the collection of Dominique-Vivant Denon, Napoleon's Minister of Fine Arts, on whose initiative they were probably made. The casting is by an obscure goldsmith named Lacour and the high-quality chasing by François-Aimé Damerat.
S234|1|1|The floppy hat, tight-fitting tunic and breeches worn by this figure playing the guitar are characteristic of various figures of servants appearing in the Commedia dell’Arte a form of improvisational theatre invented in Italy during the Renaissance and extremely popular in eighteenth-century France. In particular, our figure is usually identified as the rival of Arlequin, Mezzetin (half-measure).<br>Mezzetin is usually represented by the Commedia dell’Arte as the sentimental lover, as the lovelorn attitude of our sculpture clearly suggests. The presence of the monkey at his feet also relates to his characterisation, as it was a known symbol of lust.<br>Although characters from the Commedia dell’Arte appear very frequently in fête galante paintings of the time (see the numerous works of the genre in this room, such as Watteau’s Arlequin and Columbine, P387 or Lancret’s A Gallant Conversation, P422), sculptural representations of such characters are extremely rare.<br>Only one other version of this model survives, although another variant paired with a figure of Columbine is documented in eighteenth-century sale catalogues. The posthumous inventory of the sculptor Corneille van Clève (1645–1732) listed bronze figures of Mezzetin and Pierrot and a bronze ‘Guitar player’ was exhibited at the Salon in 1704 by Jean Poultier (1653–1719).
S247|1|1|Christ is shown here crucified between two thieves: the good thief on Christ’s right, who asked Christ to remember him, and the bad thief, on Christ's left, who abused Christ. This ivory, which was once partly pigmented, is remarkable for the expressive naturalism and sculptural depth of the main figures. One of the greatest Gothic ivories to survive, it was formerly the central piece of a triptych or retable as evidenced by the remains of hinges on either side.
S263|1|1|This beautiful sculpture was carved by Francis van Bossuit, probably in Amsterdam, at the end of the seventeenth century. The carving is in exceptionally high relief, making full use of the curve of the ivory tusk. It depicts The Toilet of Bathsheba, a scene from the Old Testament (Second Book of Samuel) in which Kind David, seen in the background upon the roof of his palace, spied on and fell in love with Bathsheba, wife of his general. The carver highlighted the erotic element of the story. She is shown after she has emerged from the bath. Her body is sensuously modelled. Bathsheba’s maid braids her hair whereas the old woman sent by David presents her with a casket full of jewellery and whispers an offer into her ear.<br><br>The piece is significant, both due to its artistic value and its provenance. It is a well-documented object because it has always been regarded as an important work by van Bossuit, who specialised in ivory. He was a prolific and popular Flemish artist, highly praised by his contemporaries. His work was further popularised in engravings by Matthijs Pool published in Amsterdam in 1727. This publication included the illustration of the Bathsheba, followed by an analogical relief composition, showing another erotic Old Testament subject - Susanna and the Elders. The original ivory sculpture of Susanna and the Elders is in the Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. The reliefs are thought to be a pair and are recorded together in the collection of Petronella de la Court (1624-1707) in Amsterdam. She was an important art collector and van Bossuit’s major patron. After her death both pieces were sold to different buyers. They were reunited before 1783 when they were sold at an auction that also included Frans Hals’s celebrated painting 'The Laughing Cavalier', today one of the highlights of the Wallace Collection. Interestingly, the picture was sold for 247 guilders, whereas van Bossuit’s ivory panels reached 710 guilders (the Susanna) and 610 guilders (the Bathsheba). At the end of the eighteenth century the reliefs were separated for good, the Bathsheba finding its way into the Wallace Collection.
S265|1|1|This is one of the finest works of Dominikus Stainhart who, after training in Italy, worked in Munich from 1682 until his death. The sumptuous frame of silver-gilt was probably made about twenty years after the central panel and is an early example of the Rococo style which flourished in southern Germany in the eighteenth century.
S266|1|1|Probably in workshop of Gerard van Opstal in 1668; French Royal Collections. Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier by 1846; Pourtales sale March 1865, no. 1504; bought by Mannheim for 6000 francs for the 4th Marquess of Hertford.
S267|1|1|Probably in workshop of Gerard van Opstal in 1668; French Royal Collections. Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier by 1846; Pourtales sale March 1865, no. 1504; bought by bought by Mannheim for 6000 francs for the 4th Marquess of Hertford.
S273|1|1|The inscription on the base reads: 'the work of Francesco, goldsmith of Padua'. Although Sant’Agata was a goldsmith, this wooden statuette is his most famous work, already celebrated in the sixteenth century. It was mentioned in Bernardino Scardeone’s history of Padua of 1560 which makes the piece exceptional as wooden sculptures were rarely documented in Renaissance sources.<br><br>Richard Wallace was unaware of the identity of the sculptor and considered the inscription a mystery. The correct attribution was re-established at the end of his life.
S279|1|1|The intricacy of miniature boxwood carvings made in the Netherlands has always been a source of wonder. Intended for personal devotion, they quickly became desirable collectors' items.<br><br>This miniature Gothic triptych (altarpiece made up of three panels) is richly carved with scenes from the Old and New Testaments, with the Adoration of the Magi in the centre. A kneeling couple in the panels on the far left and right probably depicts those who commissioned the piece. Their identity remains unknown, although the man is accompanied by St Nicholas which may be a clue that his name was Nicholas
S280|1|1|This miniature woodcarving contains images of Christ in the house of Mary and Martha with the Twelve Apostles in the background (upper scene), and Noli Me Tangere with the Three Maries in the right background (lower scene).<br>Noli Me Tangere ('touch me not') is the Latin version of a phrase spoken, according to John the Eevangelist, by Jesus to Mary Magdalene when she recognized him after his resurrection.<br><br>The nut has a tiny ring attached to the exterior, which suggests that it might have been a part of a string of beads (rosary) and used in personal devotion. It could also be attached to people’s clothes and carried around as recorded in some pictorial and written sources. Such miniature carvings quickly became collectors’ items, admired for their ingenuity.
S281|1|1|This miniature woodcarving, 4.5 cm in diameter, contains images of St George slaying the Dragon and the vision of St Hubert. The latter depicts the scene when the future saint is being converted to Christianity by the sight of a stag bearing a crucifix between its antlers.<br><br>The nut has a tiny ring attached to the exterior, which suggests that it might have been a part of a string of beads (rosary) and used in personal devotion. It could also be attached to people’s clothes and carried around as recorded in some pictorial and written sources. Such miniature carvings quickly became collectors’ items, admired for their ingenuity.
S291|1|1|Almost nothing is known about the sculptor Adam D, beyond his tantalisingly cryptic signature and a handful of works. He was one of the leading members of a group of wood-carvers in the so-called Danube school, who worked in an area bounded by Salzburg, Passau and Prague and who often evoked the lush forests and mountains of the region in their art. Although the human figures in this refined relief are placed in the foreground, the composition is determined by the almost overpoweringly luscious forest landscape, in which animals abound.
S297|1|1|This is one of the rarest plaquette designs commonly linked to the style of Donatello, with only four other casts surviving. Despite the scarcity of metal replicas, the model must have enjoyed great popularity, as it was copied in drawings as well as stucco, terracotta and marble reliefs.<br><br>The attribution and dating of this model – with the bold perspectival presence of the archway, in turn set against another fictive frame, and the parapet – have long been debated. Some art historians, praising the shallow relief and pictorial qualities of the composition, have attributed it directly to Donatello, possibly in relation to an original lost marble relief. Others have considered it the work of a follower, like Bertoldo di Giovanni (c.1430/40–1491), or a product of the master’s workshop.<br><br>Surely, the construction of the architectural background is typical of the style of Donatello who often adopted a slight angle from below to accentuate the monumentality of the figures. In particular, close comparisons can be drawn to two reliefs depicting the Feast of Herod, one in gilt bronze made for the Cathedral in Siena in the late 1420s, the other in marble and slightly later, therefore pushing the dating of the model to the 1430s. Given the small number of bronze casts and the quality of the design it seems entirely possible that Donatello was responsible for the model and that the casts were produced in workshops close to Donatello and within his lifetime.
S299|1|1|This plaquette and S300 replicate a model considered to be very close to Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, 1386/7-1466) . There are very stringent similarities with Virgin and Child compositions Donatello produced during the 1420s and 30s, such as the Pazzi Madonna (Staatliche Museen, Berlin) and the Torrigiani Madonna (Museo del Bargello, Florence). Some scholars, however, have rejected an attribution of the design to the master himself, pointing out that this composition only appears in plaquette form.<br><br>It seems likely, however, that the model was devised in Florence during the 1430s reflecting Donatello and his followers' interest in developing the motive of the shell niche a decade earlier.<br><br>S299 is a good-quality cast with fine detailing aimed at giving texture to the Virgin's tunic and robe.
S300|1|1|This plaquette and S299 replicate a model considered to be very close to Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, 1386/7-1466). The top of the background has here been cut away in the model leaving the Virgin and Child's heads silhouetted, while the lowest parts of the niche have been turned into finials for a throne.<br><br>There are very stringent similarities with Virgin and Child compositions Donatello produced during the 1420s and 30s, such as the Pazzi Madonna (Staatliche Museen, Berlin) and the Torrigiani Madonna (Museo del Bargello, Florence). Some scholars, however, have rejected an attribution of the design to the master himself, pointing out that this composition only appears in plaquette form.<br><br>It seems likely, however, that the model was devised in Florence during the 1430s reflecting Donatello and his followers' interest in developing the motive of the shell niche a decade earlier.<br><br>S300 might have been cast from another plaquette, as the closed hole at the bottom suggests. I is therefore probably a later cast than the closely related S299.
S301|1|1|Our plaquette replicates a type that is very well-documented by numerous surviving examples where it is possible to appreciate the original design, here severely truncated.<br><br>The Virgin and Child are presented behind a parapet decorated with stylised acanthus leaves and in more complete examples the background has a garland decorated with ribbons suspended above the figures. There are numerous variants of this basic compostion, often incorporating figure of saints flanking the central group of the Virgin and Child.<br><br>Scholars have noted the close relationship of this model with that of other plaquettes of the same subject attributed to Donatello and his circle (see for example S300 and S299). This comparison and the presence and style of the garland suggest a Paduan origin for this design, to an artist influenced by Donatello and aware of the work of Andrea Mantegna (c.1430/1-1506) in the 1450s.
S316|1|1|The composition of this relief is a very close copy of a famous drawing of the same subject made by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) in 1532 depicting the rape of Ganymede – a young shepherd loved by Jupiter and carried by the god to the heavens to serve as his cup-bearer. A version of the drawing, possibly the original by Michelangelo, is today at the Fogg Art Museum of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The drawing was very popular at the time, and was translated into a rock crystal engraving by Giovanni Bernardi (1496-1553). Both documented versions of the rock crystal engraving are lost, but their composition is known through bronze plaquettes, most of which seem to replicate the same version and present slight differences from our relief. A marble relief once in the collection of Lucien Bonaparte was originally attributed to Michelangelo himself. Now lost, the marble is documented by an engraving closely replicating the composition of our relief. The popularity of the theme of the rape of Ganymede during the Renaissance has sometimes been interpreted through Neoplatonic philosophy: Ganymede would therefore represent the human soul and his story be a symbol of platonic love. However, the homoerotic and violent charge of the subject, still evident in the aggression of the eagle, cannot be overlooked. S316 is a relief of great quality and impact. The modelling seems to have been made exclusively in the wax and very meticulously detailed with various tools and even a fine comb used to texturise the background. The relief has been attributed to Vincenzo Danti on the basis of context as well as stylistic grounds. Danti was a close follower of Michelangelo and considered him the greatest inspiration for any artist aspiring to master human anatomy. Danti trained in Rome in the 1540s and 50s, originally within the workshop of a goldsmith, and might have met Michelangelo at the time. Even without direct contact, he would have been surrounded by the master’s work in Rome and later on paid him tribute in his ‘Treatise of Perfect Proportions’ in 1567. Working in Perugia and Florence in the 1550s and 60s Danti became renowned for his bronze reliefs and seems to have preferred the oval format for these. The waxiness of the relief, the use of undercuts and the effort put into achieving a sketch-like effect in what was actually a very meticulously worked wax model (again deriving from Michelangelo) are all typical of his work.
S341|1|1|An astute businessman and statesman, Cosimo de’Medici (1389-1464) first held the office of chief of the Signoria (the Florentine republican government) at a young age in 1415. Having hugely expanded the family banking business, and despite being exiled in 1433, the following year Cosimo was called back to Florence and became the de facto ruler of Florence. He was, however, extremely careful not to offend the republican sentiments of the Florentine, and never took formal control of the government. S341 is one of two known medals of Cosimo de’ Medici which have survived in numerous examples. It must have been circulating at least by 1469 as it was copied in a miniature decorating a manuscript made for Cosimo’s son Pietro, who died in that year.<br><br>The relief is much more pronounced in the obverse: this and the wear to the reverse of our medal suggest that the medal was meant to display Cosimo’s portrait rather than the allegorical figure representing the city of Florence on the reverse. This was a bold statement for a man who had intentionally avoided personal imagery, and one of the earliest examples of politically motivated art commissioned by the Medici.<br><br>Cosimo was a learned man and, like his heirs, an enthusiastic patron of the arts. The medal exploits the reference to ancient Roman coins and emphasises the connection between Cosimo and the great virtues of Republican Rome. The figure of Florence on the reverse is also modelled on the figure of the goddess Concordia often found on Roman coins.<br><br>Although the cast of our medal has been linked to the name of Niccolò Fiorentino, as the rather clumsy treatment of the reverse is characteristic of his work, many scholars believe that the quality of Cosimo’s portrait points to a much more skilled sculptor, often identified as Donatello, who was among Cosimo’s protegés.
S344|1|1|Illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan, Caterina became known and celebrated during her own lifetime as a strong, beautiful, confident and resourceful woman, capable of reacting to an eventful life and to often adverse circumstances.<br><br>Having married the nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, Girolamo Riario, in 1477, the two ruled as counts of Forli and Imola (near Bologna) until Girolamo’s assassination in 1488. Having been imprisoned with her children, Caterina managed to regain control of the city, expel her enemies, the Orsi family, and claim the rule of Forli and Imola for her son Ottaviano.<br><br>During the 1490s she married again twice in secret, not to jeopardise her control over territories she had fought so determinedly to keep. This precaution, however, proved pointless in the long term, as in 1498 Pope Alexander VI Borgia confiscated the two cities which were captured by his son Cesare between 1499 and 1500. Caterina ended up in prison again, but was freed in 1501, when she retired to Florence. One of his children was the great military commander (condottiere) Giovanni dalle Bande Nere (1498-1526).<br><br>Since the medal depicts Caterina in mourning, it is likely that it was made around 1488 after the murder of her first husband. The reverse, therefore, probably refers to her ability to retain her territories after an attempt by Pope Innocent VIII to take them from her in the same year.
S349|1|1|Niccolò Boni was the housekeeper of the Florentine sculptor and painter Giovanni Francesco Rustici. In 1528 Rustici, who was of noble birth and more of a dilettante than a professional artist, left for France, leaving his property in Florence under the supervision of Boni. It has been suggested that he made this medal as a farewell gift. Boni’s dress as an Emperor all’antica may relate to his appearance in the mascarades that were popular in Florentine aristocratic society.
S368|1|1|Guillaume Dupré was also a sculptor, but his reputation rests mainly on his work as a medallist. He made many portrait medals of Henri IV (1553-1610), the first Bourbon King of France, and his wife Marie de Médicis (1573-1642). On the reverse of the medal the king and queen are shown as Mars and Minerva, standing with hands joined and the infant dauphin (the future Louis XIII) as Cupid between them, an eagle descending from the skies with a crown in its beak. It was Henri IV who finally brought peace to France after decades of bitter civil war. Countless images celebrating his qualities and achievements were produced in many media.
S393|1|1|With its companion medallion of her husband Louis XVI, this medallion of Queen Marie-Antoinette (1755-93) may have been made by Antoine-François Lebrun, who became a Master in 1776. The medallion of Louis XVI, also in the Wallace Collection, is signed F.P. LEBRUN (which might mean fait par [i.e. made by] Lebrun), but there were several goldsmiths with this surname and it is not certain that both medallions are by the same hand. A similar pair, a gift in 1775 from Louis XVI to Haidar Ali (the father of Tipu Sultan) on the occasion of his coronation is in the India Office Collection (now British Library), London.
S450|1|1|This exquisitely modelled portrait of a gentleman and a similar one of a lady (S451) probably show a married couple. Despite research on the coat of arms and the inscription ‘Antonius Millies’ under the male portrait, their identity remains unknown. The man’s clothing may suggest that he was a member of a city council in a Northern German city and the woman’s jewellery testifies to her high status.<br><br>Wallace gathered an important collection of early wax portraits. This organic material was the ultimate material for representing human skin, and sculptures in wax have always been admired for their naturalism.
S451|1|1|This exquisitely modelled portrait of a lady and a similar one of a gentleman (S450) probably show a married couple. Despite research on the coat of arms and the inscription ‘Antonius Millies’ under the male portrait, their identity remains unknown. The man’s clothing may suggest that he was a member of a city council in a Northern German city and the woman’s jewellery testifies to her high status.<br><br>Wallace gathered an important collection of early wax portraits. This organic material was the ultimate material for representing human skin, and sculptures in wax have always been admired for their naturalism.
S457|1|1|Due to its malleability wax has been widely used for the production of sculptures and emerged as an art in its own right in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, particularly in Italy. This example has a companion piece also in the Wallace Collection of Old Age, showing a wrinkled old woman holding a crutch. A similar pair of waxes is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Such images, emphasising the brevity of human life and the vanity of human ambitions, were commonplace in Medieval and Renaissance art.
S460|1|1|The Biblical story of Susannah and the Elders was frequently taken as an example of innocent virtue triumphing over vice. Falsely accused of adultery by two old men who desired her and spied her bathing, she was saved by the prophet Daniel who proved her innocence. In this relief the sumptuous effect of the coloured wax is augmented by the use of real seed pearls and textiles, especially for the central figure of Susannah. It is one of the finest works of Daniel Neuberger the Younger, the leading member of a family of sculptors in wax in Augsburg. Daniel spent a portion of his career at the Imperial court in Vienna, where he is recorded as having taught the Emperor Leopold I to model in wax.
S472|1|1|First recorded in 1872, when lent to the Bethnal Green Museum.
S473|1|1|First recorded in 1872, when lent to the Bethnal Green Museum.