Lot 423
CIRCLE OF GIROLAMO CAMPAGNA (1549-1621), VENETIAN GILT BRONZE FIGURE OF ATLAS
16TH CENTURY
Auction: 5 February 2020 at 10:00 GMT
Description
raised on a square green marble base
Dimensions
10cm high overall
Footnote
Literature: Rossi, Girolamo Campagna,Verona, 1968, p. 26; Timofiewitsch, “Campagna”, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, p. 300-06; Timofiewitsch, Girolamo Campagna: Studien zue venezianischen Plastik um das Jahr 1600, Munich, 1972; Bruce Boucher, “Campagna”, in J. Turner [ed.], The Dictionary of Art, London, 1996; Victoria Avery, “Campagna”, in A. Bostrom [ed.], The Encyclopedia of Sculpture, New York / London, 2004, pp. 238-42
Note: The subject and treatment of mature, muscular, male anatomy are related to two marble statues signed by Girolamo Campagna, State Sculptor in Venice: an over-life-size Giant in the atrium of the Library of St Mark’s (contract of 1590), and a Hercules on the mantlepiece of the Sala del Collegio in the Ducal Palace, probably dating from the dogate of Pasquale Cicogna, 1585-95 (Rossi, 1968, pls. 14). They manifest more implicit movement, whereas this sturdy Atlas stands four-square and frontally, with his arms akimbo, to support the enormous weight of the notional globe. Otherwise it might be suggested that the figure was intended - perhaps with other companions - to stand in a niche of a cabinet, popular at the time.
The statuette, which appears to be un-published, shows analogies with others of roughly the same scale and similarly gilded that are usually attributed to Campagna, such as kneeling or standing youths or older men holding up shells to act as a salt-cellars or sweetmeat dishes (see Philippe Cros, Fondation Bemberg, Bronzes de la Renaissance Italienne, Toulouse / Paris, 1996, pp.62-64).