After Alessandro Vittoria

Sotheby's, London, 8 July 2005, lot 60;

Where acquired by the present owner, private collection, the Netherlands

Originally a feature of medieval church architecture, doorknockers had become a popular ornamentation of secular palazzi and in a sense became a mass-produced article of widely varying quality. This particular model is one of the more well-known designs whose authorship, while occasionally contested, is still believed to originate with Alessandro Vittoria (1525-1608). It may derive from the relief of Neptune on the Scuola di S. Rocco.

A similar Neptune doorknocker, catalogued by Binnebeke (op. cit.) as 19th century, is in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum.

RELATED LITERATURE

E. van Binnebeke, Sculpture from 1500-1800 in the collection of the Boymans- van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, 1994, pp. 76-77, no. 15