A pacing bull
probably Flemish School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1625 - 1725
Materials
Bronze on wood base
Measurements
202 x 275 x 88 mm; 86 mm (Height); 355 mm (Width); 190 mm (Depth); 293 mm (Height)
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 515205
Summary
Bronze; pacing bull; probably Flemish school; c. 1625-1725. Head turned slightly to its left, lowing, with its mouth wide open, tail hanging down by right leg. Mounted on large wooden base.
Full description
This stolid animal is typical of a class of bronze figures of pacing bulls that are more naturalistically conceived than the idealising statuettes derived from antique models made by the Italo-Flemish sculptor Giambologna (`1529-1608) and his followers (two examples at Anglesey Abbey, NT 515077 and NT 515167). These more naturalistic animals, which have painted parallels in the animals often depicted in the landscapes of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), are generally thought to have been made in Northern Europe in the seventeenth century. Examples include a bellowing bull attributed to the Flemish sculptor Artus Quellinus and dated c. 1640, which is known in a number of versions, among them ones in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Inv. BK-16944. Frits Scholten and Monique Verber, From Vulcan’s Forge. Bronzes from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1450-1800, exh. cat., Daniel Katz Gallery, London 2005, pp. 136-37, no. 43) and in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Inv. M.3-1977. Victoria Avery, Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, exh. cat., Daniel Katz Ltd., London 2002, pp. 218-21, no. 35). A series of six figures of bulls were made in the late sixteenth century as supports for a basin that formed part of an elaborate fountain in the pleasure gardens of Schloss Hessen in Germany; five are in the Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig (Ursel Berger and Volker Krahn, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum Braunschweig. Bronzen der Renaissance und des Barock, Braunschweig 1994, pp. 209-13, nos. 168-72) and the sixth in the Rijksmuseum (From Vulcan’s Forge, pp. 98-99, no. 29). The Anglesey Abbey bull fits into the typology of this class of bronzes, but is considerably less sophisticated, the animal’s hooves for example crudely modelled. It is likely to have been made in the Netherlands, probably in the seventeenth century, although it could be later. Jeremy Warren October 2021
Provenance
Urban Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966); acquired by 1940; Anglesey Abbey inventory 1940, p. 151, Library, valued at £25; bequeathed in 1966.
Makers and roles
probably Flemish School, sculptor
References
'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. 151. Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 128.