This elegant boxwood sculpture depicts St. John the Baptist as a child, standing on a rock populated by tiny animals; he wears his typical camel’s-hair robe, tightened around the waist by a rope, with the overturned upper flap and fastened on the side by froggings. The Baptist carries a little lamb in his left arm …
With his naked body and standing posture, the right arm raised in the act of blessing, the outstretched left arm perhaps intended to hold a small globe, the big round face with large eyes and dilated pupils, the red cheeks, the rounded eyebrows and meditative gaze, this Jesus Child can be compared – even if …
The tradition of dressed and bejewelled devotional sculptures dates back to Antiquity, survives during the Middle Ages and increases between 16th and 18th century, both in Italy and throughout Catholic Europe. Between Renaissance and Baroque, the evidences are extensive and articulated, although the results aren’t always aesthetically and artistically convincing. However, there are carved figures …
The crouching lion looks upwards and to our left, and makes the canines protrude from its half-open mouth. The powerful but docile muzzle is carved in marble with great tenderness, almost as if it were wax, as one can appreciate in the abundant and yielding skin of the mouth corners. What is most surprising is …
This exquisite sculpture is a vivid baroque interpretation of the Christus triumphans: still alive, with open eyes and raised head, recommending his spirit to God the Father. The refined ivory artifact offers the viewer remarkable anatomy and quality, both on the front and on the back. As usual, the arms are carved separately and then joined …
In the Florentine artistic panorama between the late 16th and the early 17th century we can take for granted the existence of a movement which – partially opposing the Giambologna tradition – was oriented towards neo-Renaissance forms of purism, for many aspects similar to those developed in the painting field through the teaching of Santi …
This outstanding marble capital, show the addorsed and firmly sat figures of two winged lions with human face – clearly recognizable as sphinxes – clawing the head of a snarling beast, perhaps a lion or a molossian. The nearly trapezoidal silhouette of the whole capital, which belongs to the group of the so-called ‘crutch-shaped’ capitals of Byzantine …
This beautiful sculpture depicts an elegant female head whose face – crowned by a head of hair sculpted with great refinement with the chisel tip – is framed by a veil closed with a knot below the chin. The hairstyle distinguishing this head (whose prototype can be tracked in the hairstyles of the Roman matrons …
This fine and elegant oval relief in walnut wood depicts a mythological theme well-known through an iconographic subject beloved by the Renaissance artists: the Triumph of Galatea. The most famous work depicting the Triumph of Galatea is the fresco painted by Raphael around 1511, for Agostino Chigi at Villa Farnesina in Rome. In Classic mythology …
This two striking bronze sculptures are an outstanding example of Indian palanquin covers, usually dateable from 16th to 17th century. Palanquins and sedan chairs were widely used throughout India for religious processions and local transport of royal and wealthy patrons especially in regions under Moghul or Muslim control. Figurative palanquin covers were fitted to the …