A pacing bull
Italian School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1700 - 1850
Materials
Bronze
Measurements
212 mm (Height); 232 mm (Length)
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 515167
Summary
Bronze, a pacing bull, Italian School, after a model by Giambologna (Giovanni Bologna, 1529-1608) and Antonio Susini (1558-1624), c. 1700-1850. A bronze statuette of a pacing bull, after a model by Giambologna (Giovanni Bologna, 1529-1608).This is a late cast, probably dating from the 18th or 19th centuries. The animal’s head is turned slightly to its left, right foreleg raised, tail curled over onto back. Mid-brown surface. Mounted on a rectangular bronze base.
Full description
This is a version of a well-known model of a bull by the Italo-Flemish sculptor Giovanni Bologna (1529-1608) and his assistant and follower Antonio Susini (1568-1624). There is another much smaller version of the same model at Anglesey Abbey (NT 515077), as well as a pair of bronze bulls more loosely derived from Giambologna’s model (NT 515011.1 & 2). In the course of his long career as court sculptor to the Medici Grand Dukes in Florence, the Flemish-born sculptor Giambologna (Giovanni Bologna, 1529-1608) made a large number of sculptures of animals, including horses, birds and bulls. His bronze statuette of a pacing bull, based on an antique model, is first recorded as his work in 1588, in an inventory drawn up after the death in 1587 of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francesco de’Medici (‘Uno toro di bronzo di Giobologna di braccia 0/2 incirca’; Barocchi and Bertelà 2002, I, p. 330). However, as early as 1573 he seems to have been paid by his patron Jacopo Salviatj for a bronze bull, so the model almost certainly dates from earlier (Herbert Keutner in Safarik 1990, p. 301). The model is recorded in a number of early collections, attesting to its popularity. One, cast and finished by Giambologna’s assistant and associate Antonio Susini, was among the bronzes after models by Giambologna presented to Prince Henry of Wales, the short-lived elder son of King James I/VI in 1611, and was later recorded in the collection of Henry’s brother King Charles I (Watson and Avery 1973, pp. 503-06, no. 7). Among the best casts of this popular model are those in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, from the old Medici collections (inv. 287; Avery and Radcliffe 1978, no. 177) and in the Hill collection, New York (Wengraf 2014, no. 6). Both are mounted on small oval bases, characteristic of early casts that can be regarded as autograph casts modelled and finished by Giambologna himself. In both these versions, the animal has a heavier dewlap than is seen in the much more common variant type, of which the two versions at Anglesey Abbey version are examples. The variant type, slightly simpler in form and thus easier to cast in large numbers, may have been invented by Antonio Susini (for discussion of the two models, see Avery 1987, pp. 56-59, 269-70, nos. 143 & 144). An example of the variant, mounted on a cabinet in the Palazzo Colonna in Rome, was recorded in 1628 as having been made, along with a companion figure of a horse, by Antonio’s nephew Giovan Francesco Susini (Safarik 1990, pp. 300-01, nos. XV-XVI). This Anglesey Abbey version is one of numerous casts of this cast that were made over a long period, in Florence but also beyond Italy. With rather summarily modelled surfaces, it is of average quality, so is likely to be relatively late as a cast. The base and the screws with which the hooves of the bull are fixed to this might suggest a dating in the 18th century, but it could be later still. Jeremy Warren 2020
Provenance
Acquired by Urban Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966), by 1932; identifiable in the Anglesey Abbey inventory 1932, p. 37, Newmarket Room, valued at £9; identifiable in the Anglesey Abbey inventory 1940, p. 54, Windsor Room, valued at £10; bequeathed to the National Trust by Lord Fairhaven in 1966 with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
Italian School, sculptor after Giambologna (Douai 1529 - Florence 1608), sculptor after Antonio Susini (fl.Florence 1572 – d.Florence 1624), sculptor
References
Barocchi and Bertelà 2002: Paola Barocchi and Giovanna Gaeta Bertelà, Collezionismo mediceo e storia artistica I, 2 vols., Florence 2002 Safarik 1990: Eduard A. Safarik, Catalogo della Galleria Colonna in Rome. Sculture, Rome 1990 Watson and Avery 1973: Katherine Watson and Charles Avery, 'Medici and Stuart: A Grand Ducal gift of "Giovanni Bologna" bronzes for Henry Prince of Wales (1612), Burlington Magazine, no. 845, vol.115, 1973, pp. 493-507. Avery and Radcliffe 1978: Charles Avery and Anthony Radcliffe, Giambologna, 1529-1608: sculptor to the Medici, exh.cat. venues: Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 1978 Wengraf 2014: Patricia Wengraf (ed.), Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Hill Collection, exh. cat., Frick Collection, New York 2014 Avery 1987: Charles Avery, Giambologna, The Complete Sculpture, Oxford 1987 ‘Anglesey Abbey, Lode, Cambridgeshire. An Inventory and Valuation of Furniture, Pictures, Ornamental Objects, Household Effects and A Collection of Miniatures.. prepared for Insurance Purposes’, Turner, Lord and Ransom, November 1932, p. 27. 'Anglesey Abbey, Lode, Cambridgeshire. An Inventory and Valuation of Furniture, Books, Ornamental Items & Household Effects .. prepared for Insurance Purposes’, Turner, Lord and Ransom, April 1940, p. 54. Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 128.