Italian, Florence, early 18th century

Sotheby's London, 5 July 2016, lot 135;

Where acquired.

The Vestal Virgin's idealised face with pure features tempers the animation of the drapery; her perfectly oval shaped face and the serenity emanating from her classical features contrast with the animated surface of the dress and the undulating strands of her hair. The finish of the surface, brushed with fine, regular striations, brings the skin tones to life and imitates the texture of the draped fabric. The arrangement of the hair, sublimely rendered in the chiselling after the casting, consists of a skilful interplay of braids held in place by a scarf tied around the head. The pose evokes several classical models in Florence, such as the marbles of the Medici Venus (Galleria dei Uffizi) and the bust of Sappho (Palazzo Pitti), as well as modern adaptations, such as Nicolas Cordier's Zingarella (Louvre Museum, inv. MR 393). Other reference models for this bust include the Juno Cesi (Musei Capitolini, Rome, inv. Scu 731) and the figure of Niobe, whose head, covered with a similar scarf, was widely reproduced from the last third of the 17th century onwards, in the form of freestanding busts.

The perfect casting of this bust and the infinite care taken in the chiselling, which gives the surface a delicate texture, place this bronze among the finest Florentine productions of the early 18th century. A narrow fold in the protruding drapery at the base of the bust is the only visible point of contact with the pedestal and seems, on its own, to support the entire weight of the bronze. Through this refinement of composition, the sculptor achieves both a technical feat and a daring challenge to the laws of gravity. One can find a similar tour de force in the bust of Faustina the Younger by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi in the Liechtenstein princely collections (inv. SK 529) ; one can also note the undulating folds of the latter, similar to those of the dress of our Vestal Virgin.

Although the casting of this bust is closer to the Florentine examples from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, in the circle of Massimiliano Soldani Benzi and Pietro Cipriani, it is reminiscent of certain French bronzes from the same period, particularly those in the circle of François Girardon and Robert Le Lorrain. This similarity was also highlighted in a previous Sotheby's sale, in London on 9 July 2009, for another bronze bust of the same model (lot 130), the only one known to us along with the present example. In fact, the treatment of the surface and the cut of the latter bust, which is taller and lacks the subtle detail of the protruding fold on which the present Vestal Virgin appears to stand, seem more comparable to French bronzes of the late 17th century.

RELATED LITERATURE

Liechtenstein: The Princely Collections, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1985, pp. 90-94, nos. 55-62;

G. Pratesi, Repertorio della scultura Fiorentina del seicento e settecento, Turin, 1993, ill. 491-590;

S. Baratte, G. Bresc-Bautier, S. Castelluccio, S. Descamps-Lequime, A. Lefébure, Les Bronzes de la Couronne, exh. cat., Louvre Museum, Paris, p. 168, no. 295.