Attributed to Carlo di Cesare del Palagio (1540–1598), Southern Germany, probably Munich or Dresden, circa 1590

Native from Florence, Carlo di Cesare, or Carlo Palagio, occupies a significant place in European Mannerist sculpture, at the crossroads of Italian and Germanic traditions. Trained in Florence in the Florentine court workshops around Giambologna, he became a member of the Accademia del Disegno in 1565. From 1569 to 1573, he was in Augsburg, a flourishing artistic centre, where he worked with Friedrich Sustris and other Italian colleagues to the service of the powerful Fugger family. Carlo di Cesare del Palagio then began an itinerant career from one princely German court to another, and, together with Gerhard, participated in the transalpine diffusion of the models and techniques assimilated in Giambologna's workshop.

In Munich from 1574 to 1576, at the court of Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria, he made stucco decorations for the decoration of Burg Trausnitz (a medieval castle in Landshut). For the Munich Residence gardens he created a series of bronze statues, notably a series of Putti with dragons and fish (now in the Residenz). After a trip to Florence between 1579 and 1581, Carlo di Cesare del Palagio returned to the service of the Fuggers in Augsburg, where his collaboration with Gerhard began, notably on twelve figures of illustrious men and women, and perhaps also on those of Christ and the Apostles for the Basilica of St Ulrich and St Afra, both in terracotta. After another stay in Florence, the architect and sculptor Giovanni Maria Nosseni called him to Dresden in 1588, probably on the recommendation of Giambologna, to work for Christian Ist, Elector of Saxony. There, from 1590 to 1593, he worked on seventy stucco and bronze figures for the Wettin funerary chapel (Freiberg). Once this project was completed, followed by another stay in Italy, Carlo di Cesare del Palagio collaborated once again with Gerhard and Sustris on the Tomb of William V and Renata of Lorraine, commissioned for the Michaelskirche in Munich. Most of the elements of this project, which was never completed, are scattered throughout Munich (Michaelskirche, Residenz and Frauenkirche). The sculptor returned to Italy for good in 1597, where he died the following year in Mantua.

Carlo di Cesare del Palagio thus spent most of his career working with other sculptors on large ensembles; his collaborations, particularly with Gerhard, naturally make the attribution of his models more complex. However, for his stay in Dresden it is evident that he also used his knowledges as a bronze sculptor to produce small statuettes, in some cases also in multiple versions, for a side income. Among the few models now attributed to him in this field, are a Nymph after Adriaen de Vries, recently exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (c. 1590-93; private collection), and a group of Venus withholding a heart from Cupid, until recently in the Quentin collection (Christie's New York, 30 January 2024, lot 3). It should be added that several groups of Venus and Cupid are documented during Cesare del Palagio's activity in Dresden, in Nosseni's post-mortem inventory (cf. D. Diemer, op. cit., 2001, pp. ???).

Figures of young children, putti or angels, thus punctuated the sculptor's work, notably in Munich and in Freiberg for the Wettin Chapel. For the latter, he created an impressive assembly of more than fifty Angels or Putti in bronze and terracotta, some singing or playing music, others holding the instruments of the Passion or bearing the family coat of arms. The present Putto bears striking similarities to some of Carlo di Cesare del Palagio's well-known models, particularly in the Wettin Chapel. His broad forehead, the deep corners of his half-open mouth with almost parallel lips, the pronounced eyelids and pupils of his eyes, and the dimples under each of his fingers are all characteristics of Carlo di Cesare del Palagio's style. Similarly, the voluminous tuft of hair above his forehead, which is particularly high, is comparable to that of two seated Putti, one holding a trumpet and the other playing a triangle, on the attic of the Wettin Chapel (cf. D. Diemer, op. cit., 2004, pp. 480-489). 

Recent analysis of the bronze in Amsterdam established that the copper alloy used for the putto is consistent with copper alloys used in Southern Germany at the end of the 16th century. A report of the analyis is available upon request. 

We would like to thank Dr Dorothea Diemer for her help in researching and writing this entry.

RELATED LITERATURE

D. Diemer, Hubert Gerhard und Carlo di Cesare del Palagio. Bronzeplastiker der Spätrenaissance, 2 vols., Berlin, 2004;

D. Diemer,“Bronzeplastik um 1600 in München. Neue Quellen und Forschungen“, Teil I, Jahrbuch des Zentralinstituts für Kunstgeschichte, vol. 2, 1986, pp. 107-177; Teil II, vol. 3., pp. 109-168;

S. Androssov, “A Pair of Angels in the Hermitage: An Attribution to Carlo di Cesare del Palagio”, in Large Bronzes in the Renaissance, New Haven and London, 2003, pp. 181–189;

D. Diemer, ‘Small Bronzes by Hubert Gerhard: A Review of Recent Scholarship,’ in Small Bronzes in the Renaissance, New Haven and London, 2001, pp. 195-209.