Italian, Rome, circa 1700, Inspired by models by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598 - 1680)

Adriano Ribolzi Antiquaire, Monaco;

His sale, Sotheby's Paris, 30 November 2011, lot 14;

Where acquired.

N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002, pp. 83-85, 189-190, fig. 47

The Fontana del Moro at the southern end of the Piazza Navona in Rome was originally designed by Giacomo della Porta (1533 - 1602) during the last quarter of the 16^th century, yet its fame today is due principally to Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s renovation in the 1650s that added the eponymous central figure. Despite the uncertainty that Bernini himself intended his figure to represent an African or ‘Moor’, the work’s prominent location and dynamic composition ensured it had a lasting influence on generations of future sculptors.

The present luxurious pair of gilt bronze Tritons are preeminent examples of Bernini’s ubiquitous inspiration. The sculptor of these Tritons has freely adapted the muscular twisting pose of the fountain figure and transformed his legs into bifurcating, swirling fishtails, drawing inspiration also from Bernini’s Fontana del Tritone in the Piazza Barberini. The luxuriously tooled bases are enriched with carefully chased foliage and the massive fish with which Bernini's original struggles is transformed into spiralling cornucopia. This loose reinterpretation of Il Moro is known in two closely related versions. A terracotta (h. 30 cm.) in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille (inv. S 197) has been associated with the work of Pierre Puget (1622 - 1694). Whilst not an autograph work, this terracotta relates to a pair of large (h. 160 cm.) wooden Tritons attributed to Puget’s workshop in the Musée national de la Marine (inv. 37 OA 53, 37 OA 54). This terracotta in turn has affinities with a bronze Triton that holds a large porphyry tazza in the collection of the Palazzo Torlonia, Rome (fig. 1). The Torlonia bronze, or Marseille terracotta may be the genesis of the present Tritons, or they may all share a common source.

The present rich gilt bronzes translate the magnificence of Bernini’s monumental Fontana del Moro into opulent interior decoration befitting a prestigious Roman palazzo. Their facture and finish is consistent with 18^th century Roman decorative furnishing bronzes. A thermoluminescence test conducted in 2009 by CIRAM (available on request) dates the core sample analysed to around 1650 - 1710. In a private study, also in 2009, Dott. Tomaso Montanari attributed them to Johan Paul Schor, called Giovan Paolo Tedesco (1615 - 1674) (available on request). Montanari notes comparisons between the angular treatment of the rocks and the vegetation with tables that are linked to drawings by Schor and to gilded copper frames, supposed to come from the ‘carrozza dele ghiande’ belonging to Cardinal Flavio Chigi (A. González-Palacios, op. cit.). Whilst these Tritons undoubtedly owe a debt to the visual language created by Baroque designers, such as Paul Schor and Filippo Passerini, Schor was never active as a goldsmith or metalworker, but his training as a painter allowed him to create his inspiring designs that were indeed used by craftsmen in metal and wood, embroiderers, furniture makers, and many others.

On the other hand, when these bronzes were sold from the Matthew Schutz collection in Sotheby’s New York on 9 December 1994, lot 102, they were considered to be George III, circa 1770 and attributed to Matthew Boulton (1728 - 1809). The basis for this association is a drawing of a Triton in the Boulton and Fothergill’s pattern book, which shows the same figure with two candle branches on the cornucopia (fig. 2). A pair of dark bronze Tritons sold as lot 146, Sotheby’s London, 10 November 1995 (fig. 4) and single dark bronze Tritons sold at Christie's, London 11 December 1990, lot 89 and New York 4 April 2002, lot 4, have all been given to Boulton. A similar design appears in the Wedgwood and Bentley’s London pattern book and is known in numerous examples made by Wedgwood as well as Wood and Caldwell and the Derby Porcelain Factory (T. Clifford, op. cit. and V&A: invs. WE.1053-2014, WE.1052-2014, C.584-1925, 414:414-1885). 

It is probable that the Boulton production and all the ceramic versions are derived from a model produced by Sir William Chambers, the illustrious Swedish-British architect. Discussed by Goodison in 1982 and 1990 (op. cits.), he notes that ‘in 1767 Chambers wrote to Lord Charlemont saying that Anderson [Diederich Nicolaus Anderson (d. 1767)] whom he had commissioned to make the gilt ornaments for Charlemont’s medal cabinet and other ornaments, was on the point of death, and that ‘‘as soon as I can get the models I must employ some other person to do the work, both for the medal cases and the tritons’’. That these tritons were the same design as the triton in Boulton and Fothergill’s sketch is suggested by the drawing by Chambers for Lord Charlemont of the Eating Room at Charlemont House’. By March 1768, Chambers wrote again to Charlemont saying that the Tritons ‘are finished all but the bronzing, and they are so finely executed that it would be a pity not have them quite complete. I have therefore ordered them be entirely gilded, for I feared that bronzing would make them appear dull, and partly gilding upon the bronze would look tawdry. This will increase the expense of them, but I think it will answer when done’. That the Tritons owned by Chambers are the source for Boulton’s bronzes is confirmed by correspondence between Chambers and Boulton in 1773 in which he asked for the return of two tritons and a griffin which Chambers himself had to return to their true owner (ie Lord Charlemont). Comparing the reduced quality of the chasing and details, principally on the rockwork, in the plain bronzes sold at Sotheby’s in 1995 and Christie’s in 1990 and 2002, confirms the primacy of these gilt bronzes. The treatment of these gilt bronze Tritons has notable affinities with Griffin candlesticks made by Anderson for Blenheim Palace (Goodison 2002, figs. 13 and 14).

If the present gilt bronze Tritons were made for Chambers in 1767, was Anderson following an earlier model? Could this have been the Torlonia bronze (or a cast of it), or the Marseille terracotta? The bifurcating tails of both the former spiral outwards, and the manner in which these have been brought in closer to the body in the gilt bronzes could be consistent with the simplification of the more Baroque model and be better suited to reproduction.

Whether cast in Rome around 1700 or in England in the 1770s, these magnificent gilt bronze Tritons epitomise the impact of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s inspirational genius that is still lauded today. In January 2025, the Rijksmuseum announced the spectacular permanent loan of a large terracotta of Il Moro by Bernini, testament to the abiding power and presence of his Piazza Navona Triton.

RELATED LITERATURE

C. L. Visconti, I Monumenti del Museo Torlonia, Rome, 1885, n° 193;

P. Vitali, Museo Torlonia, Rome, (s.d.), n° 41;

N. Goodison, Ormolu: The work of Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, pp. 102-103, figs. 11-13;

A. Angelini, cat. exp. Alessandro VII Chigi (1599-1667), Rome, 2000;

A. González-Palacios, Furniture and Ornaments at the court of Rome 1565-1795, Milan, 2004, pp. 74-76, 78-79;

T. Clifford, "John Bacon and the Manufacturers" in Apollo, October, 1985, p. 288-304.