Florence, first half of the 17th century, after Giambologna (1529 - 1608)

Probably acquired Don Carlos Miguel Fitz-James Stuart y Silva, 14th Duke of Alba ( 1794 - 1835);

Collection of the Dukes of Alba, Palacio de Liria, Madrid;

Private sale, Sotheby's, London, 8 August 2016;

Where acquired.

Giambologna and animal sculpture

Sir Nicholas Penny, in his introduction on small bronzes by and after Giambologna in the catalogue of the Robert H. Smith collection, observed that the relationship between the sculptor's large and small scale bronzes is a constant interplay of ideas and inspiration: “Sometimes the small bronzes record monumental projects, sometimes they are rehearsals for them, or byproducts of them ...”. Giambologna supervised highly organised workshops in Florence producing superb quality small bronzes. From the 1580s Antonio Susini was instrumental in establishing the level of sophistication for which Florentine bronzes became famous across Europe. This tradition continued throughout the 17th and into the 18th century.

The statuette of the Pacing Horse derives from Giambologna's famous equestrian monument to Cosimo I erected in the Piazza della Signoria in 1594. Giambologna had been developing models of a horse throughout his career, but the unveiling of the Cosimo I monument crystalized the image of the powerful, controlled pacing horse as a symbol of statehood. This stimulated a strong demand for statuettes, generally of horses without riders, which was enthusiastically met by Giambologna’s workshop and assistants in the Borgo Pinti and Portigiani foundries in Florence.

The Alba horse appears to be unique in the manner in which the mane is cast separately from the head and attached by three pins. The quality of the mane is perfectly consistent with the facture of the tail and body, so it must be assumed that it was made like this at the time. This is not without precedent. Documents record that in 1573 Giambologna made a bronze of the Pacing Horse for one of his main patrons, Jacopo di Alamanno Salviati, which incurred such serious casting flaws that the head needed to be re-cast six years later.

The Alba Pacing Bull is a particularly fine example of Giambologna's model, known as Type A. The seminal casts of Type A are those in the Bargello (inv. 287B) and in the Hill Collection (P. Wengraf, op. cit., cat. 6). The first document that securely associates Giambologna with the statuette of a bull is the 1588 posthumous inventory of the Casino di San Marco, one of Grand Duke Francesco de' Medici's town houses: “un taro di bronzo di Giambologna di braccio 0/2 in circa”. Wengraf proposes that the Hill and Bargello casts were produced by Girolamo di Zanobi Portigiani. The Alba bronze follows many of the characteristics of the Type A bull, as described by Wengraf (op. cit., p. 122) in relation to the Hill cast, but it is later in date, consistent with casts in the first half of the 17th century.

The collection of the Dukes of Alba

Born in Madrid in 1794, Don Carlos Miguel inherited the title of 14th Duke of Alba in 1802. He was intelligent and cultured and travelled extensively throughout Europe, enriching the Alba collection with such masterpieces as The Virgin of Granada by Fra Angelico, recently acquired for the Prado, and Peter Paul Rubens painting of Pathway to the Market. In 1819 he married Rosalia Ventimiglia di Grammonte y Moncada (1798-1868), in Rome. It is likely that Don Carlos Miguel would have acquired this pair of Florentine bronzes around this time, or they may have come into the collection with Rosalia Ventimiglia.

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Avery, A. Radcliffe, Giambologna 1528-1609. Sculptor to the Medici, exh. cat. Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, London, 1978, pp. 172-181 & 192;

A. Radcliffe, N. Penny, The Robert H. Smith Collection. The Art of the Renaissance Bronze 1500-1650, London, 2004, pp. 154-155;

D. Gasparotto, “Cavalli e cavalieri. Il monumento equestre da Giambologna a Foggini”, in B. Paolozzi Strozzi, D. Zikos, Giambologna. Gli dei, gli eroi, exh. cat. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, 2006, pp. 88-106;

M. Leithe-Jasper, P. Wengraf (eds.), European Bronzes from the Quentin Collection, exh. cat. Frick Collection, New York, 2004, pp. 166-173;

W. Seipel (ed.), Giambologna. Triumph des Körpers, exh. cat. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 2006, pp. I 20f, pp. 273-275;

P. Wengraf (ed.), Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Hill Collection, London, 2014, pp. 118-125, no. 6 & pp.126-13 7, no. 7.