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17 juin 2014

Christie’s presents Masterpieces of European Furniture & Decorative Arts in London on 10 july including 16 Works of Art with Roy

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A Bronze Group of The Rape of a Sabine by Giambologna (c.1529-1608), Florence, circa 1583-98, inscribed 'GIO BOLONGE' on the rockwork base; the standing Roman male figure holding the Sabine woman aloft, the Sabine man crouching below, 23 ¼ in. (59 cm.) high. Estimate £3,000,000 – £5,000,000 ($5,097,000 - $8,495,000). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014

LONDON - Christie's announce that The Exceptional Sale will take place on the evening of 10 July 2014. Following the successes since the inaugural auction in 2008, this sale platform provides collectors with the opportunity to acquire masterpieces of European furniture and decorative arts. The Exceptional Sale brings together a wide variety of objects which are linked by a common attribute: excellence. The auction is highlighted by the Egyptian statue Sekhemka and a bronze sculpture by Giambologna, which will be on view during Open House 2014, the sixth annual summer exhibition of masterpieces that Christie‟s has staged, presenting over 100 exceptional artworks and objects during a five-day free event in London, from 13-17 June 2014. The Exceptional Sale will also present the finest examples of English, French and Italian furniture, ormolu-mounted Chinese porcelain, silver, European porcelain, clocks, sculpture and carpets. Comprising 58 lots, the sale is expected to realise in excess of £18 million.

Robert Copley, Deputy Chairman Christie’s UK, International Head of Furniture and Decorative Arts: United by the common themes of rarity, provenance, craftsmanship and beauty, works offered in ‘The Exceptional Sale’ this year continue to celebrate excellence, while providing collectors with an opportunity to acquire the very best; from an exquisite Italian sculpture by Giambologna to an historical Egyptian statue, ‘The Exceptional Sale’ will also offer some of England’s finest furniture made by Chippendale, Imperial European silver and a wide range of works with royal provenance including an elegant carpet made during the reign of King Louis XV and a porcelain vase celebrating the Duke of Wellington’s victory at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813.

Discerning collectors will not want to miss the opportunity to acquire the present bronze by Giambologna entitled The Rape of A Sabine, which last appeared at auction at Christie‟s London in December 1989 when it made a world record price of £2,750,000 (estimate: £3,000,000 – 5,000,000 million). It was purchased at that time by a private collector who is now offering it again for sale 25 years later. The bronze depicts one of the most celebrated compositions of the Florentine court sculptor Giambologna (1529-1608) and is one of only three bronzes to bear the inscription „GIO BOLONGE‟ – the other two being in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In terms of facture and surface.

 

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DetailA Bronze Group of The Rape of a Sabine by Giambologna (c.1529-1608), Florence, circa 1583-98, inscribed 'GIO BOLONGE' on the rockwork base; the standing Roman male figure holding the Sabine woman aloft, the Sabine man crouching below, 23 ¼ in. (59 cm.) high. Estimate £3,000,000 – £5,000,000 ($5,097,000 - $8,495,000). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014

The Rape of a Sabine Woman offered here belongs to a small group of bronzes modelled, cast, and finished in a similar way: those in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (inv. 52/118, published in Weihrauch 1956, pp. 84-87, cat. 110); with Mr. and Mrs. J. Tomilson Hill, New York (Kryza-Gersch, in Wengraf 2014, pp. 148-155, cat. 9); in the Liechtenstein Princely collections, Vaduz-Vienna (inv. SK 115, Draper, in: Frankfurt 1986, p. 177, cat. 16); and in a private collection. Among these, it is the only one bearing an inscription with Giambologna’s name. Because its technical features and artistic quality are consistent with bronzes known or likely to have been produced under Giambologna’s supervision, this inscription amounts to a signature. 

Bronze groups representing the Rape of a Sabine Woman with three figures are not documented in Giambologna’s lifetime. However, a cast described in the inventory of the Kunstkammer of Emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612, r. 1576) as ‘a group after the one Giovan Bologna made in Florence of white marble, being three figures of bronze, is a Rape of a Sabine’ (‘Ein gruppo nach dem Giovan Bolonia so er zu Florentz von weissem marmo gemacht, sein 3 figurn von bronzo, ist ein rabimento Sabine’; Bauer/Haupt 1976, p. 101, no. 1907) must have been an autograph work. Rudolph probably knew Giambologna personally. He knighted him on 26 August 1588 (Desjardins 1883, App. E 172-174), and according to the above-mentioned inventory, which was drawn up between 1607 and 1611, he had what must have been the largest collection of Giambologna bronzes that anyone had assembled while the sculptor was still alive.  

Another cast that must date from Giambologna’s lifetime is a Rape of a Sabine Woman documented as belonging to Markus Zäch (d. 1620) in Augsburg in 1610 as part of a group of Giambologna bronzes, described as ‘opere del Gio. Bologna’ (‘works by Giovanni Bologna’). As suggested by the author in 2006, these casts must have been acquired by Markus’s father Sebastian Zäch in Italy in the 1590s directly from the artist (Zikos 2006, pp. 24-25): on 29 October 1592 Giambologna signed the Liber Amicorum that Sebastian kept during his stay in Florence and Pisa, citing the ‘longa amitie’ that united him to Sebastian. Sebastian died in 1598 (Diemer 2006, p. 116), so his collection of Giambologna bronzes must have been assembled before that date. What remains of it is divided between the collections of the Count von Schönborn (small bronzes, published in part by Hans R. Weihrauch and Corey Keeble) and the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (six reliefs with scenes from the Passion of Christ; Diemer 2006, pp. 115-119). All these bronzes, including a cast of the Rape of a Sabine, passed to the Schönborn family in the seventeenth century when they were acquired from Zäch’s heirs. At an unknown date the Passion reliefs were sold by the Schönborn to a branch of the Wittelsbach family and are documented in the 1730 inventory of Johann Wilhelm, the Elector Palatine (Diemer 2006, p. 118). A series of technical and stylistic elements, discussed below, suggests that the lost Zäch/Schönborn cast of the Rape of a Sabine Woman could very well be the present bronze. 

THE MARBLE RAPE OF A SABINE WOMAN 

As mentioned above, the Rape is described in the inventory of the Emperor’s Kunstkammer as a copy after a famous Giambologna marble group, the Rape of a Sabine in the Loggia dei Lanzi in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence – the iconic Mannerist sculpture. Nothing is known about the commission of the marble but according to a letter of 27 October 1580 by Simone Fortuna to the Duke of Urbino (Barocchi/Bertelà 1993 pp. 180-183, no. 196), Giambologna was then at work on a marble group of three statues (‘un gruppo di tre statue’) soon to be finished and destined for the Loggia dei Pisani, a loggia that once stood opposite the Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza della Signoria. Because it is Giambologna’s only marble composed of three figures, and because of its destination for a loggia in the same piazza where it was finally placed, this must have been the Rape of a Sabine Woman (Kryza-Gersch, in Wengraf 2014, pp. 150-151, with references to earlier literature). The marble was finished, apart from the ‘ultima mano’, by 30 July 1582, when Donatallo’s Judith was removed from where it had stood under the right-hand side arch of the Loggia dei Lanzi and replaced, on 28 August, by the ‘miracoloso gruppo’ of Giambologna’s Rape of a Sabine (Settimani, in Dhanens 1956, p. 235, note 1). It was, however, covered for Giambologna to add the finishing touches ‘a suo piacere senza essere veduto da nessuno’ (‘at his leisure, without being seen by anyone’), as the diarist Settimani reports for that date. Its unveiling took place on 14 January 1583 and caused a stir of emotion and excitement. 

Raffaello Borghini, Giambologna’s second biographer after Giorgio Vasari, tells us that the sculptor had not chosen to represent a specific subject matter from the start but only ‘un giovane fiero che bellissima fanciulla a debil vecchio rapisse’ (‘a proud youth who seizes a most beautiful maiden from a feeble old man’; Borghini 1584, p. 73). The marble must have been a Grand Ducal commission (perhaps initially destined for the garden of the Medici villa of Pratolino, as Herbert Keutner has suggested) but somewhat after the date of Fortuna’s above-cited letter Grand Duke Francesco decided to have it placed in the Loggia dei Lanzi. There it cannot be easily appreciated for it was conceived to be observed in a succession of viewpoints by moving constantly around it, and it is impossible to do that where it now stands. Nevertheless it enjoyed a great reputation, and it is natural that copies of it would have been required. Among those who expressed such a desire was Henry, Prince of Wales, who asked in 1609, a year after Giambologna’s death, for a stucco reduction (Watson/Avery 1973, p. 498). 

However, neither the present bronze group nor any of the above-listed casts are a slavish copy after this work. There are minor compositional variations including, in particular, the base. Most important, in the bronzes the Sabine Woman does not betray the anguish Giambologna conferred to her in the marble (Kryza-Gersch, in Wengraf 2014, p. 154). Moreover, she does not wear a diadem, as she does in all five bronzes. 

Another small difference between the marble and the bronzes is worth mentioning. It would appear that the marble is the first Giambologna large-scale work where iris and pupil are inscribed in a figure, the Sabine Woman (Zikos 2013, p. 196, note 17). The eyes of the Roman who abducts her and of the old Crouching Man are left blank. But in the bronzes the eyes of all three figures are shown with iris and pupil – a feature common to all bronzetti known or assumed to have been made in Giambologna’s workshop after 1587, when four Giambologna bronzes were sent to Dresden as a gift by Grand Duke Francesco and by Giambologna himself to Christian, Elector of Saxony (Zikos 2006 Dresden).  

Whether the model for the bronzes preceded the large-scale model for the marble group or follows its unveiling, is impossible to ascertain. But if the latter were the case, we would expect the bronzes to be faithful to the marble. So it is likely that the bronzes depend from one of the many models that Giambologna must have made before preparing the full-size model that served for carving the marble (preserved today in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence). The use of the same diadem in a two-figure Rape, documented by 1579, favours such an assumption. Two waxes in the Victoria & Albert Museum (inv. nos. 4125 and 1092-1854) testify to this laborious phase of preparation, but neither served as a model for the bronzes. Certainly, the bronzes reflect the marble’s fame and would have been cast after its unveiling, but they do not copy it precisely. Nor does any other bronze statuette from Giambologna’s workshop. 

THE FACTURE
The facture of the cast suggests a date after 1584, at which point Giambologna is known to have produced at least one bronze by the indirect casting process: it is, in fact, consistent with that of the Giambologna bronzes so far analysed, the oldest of which is the Bargello Crouching Venus of 1584 (inv. 62B; Sturman 2001, p. 126). 

Inspection of the underside and X-rays both show that the group has been expertly cast: its walls are evenly thin, and since great care has been taken to empty it of its casting core, it is light and easy to handle. There are only five noticeable holes: between the Roman’s right leg and the torso of the Crouching Sabine Man, under the right knee of the Roman, at the right temple and the right foot of the Old Man and to the right side of the neck of the Sabine Woman. No other flaws or repairs are visible either to the naked eye or in the X-ray. X-rays also reveal wax to wax joins in the arms of the Sabine Woman and the Old Man. This is consistent with documented Giambologna bronzes. 

Extensive wire brushing follows the plasticity of the bodies in a manner typical of bronzes from the Giambologna workshop. The colour of the alloy is yellow, perhaps because of a relatively low copper content and higher amount of tin indicated by XRF analysis. Substantial traces of an original reddish varnish are preserved – a typically Florentine varnish we know was used by Giambologna’s assistant, Antonio Susini, in 1586 (Heikamp 1963, p. 245, docs. 5 and 6). Traces of a reddish core, consistent with that found in Giambologna bronzes are also preserved. 

Details are modelled in the wax in a way typical of Giambologna, especially the eyes with iris and pupil, eyelids (upper eyelids longer than lower) and tear duct. The backs of the two men’s hands, forearms, and feet are covered with veins indicating the strain of the lifting Roman and the force the Old Sabine Man requires to remain in his position. 

Fingernail and toenails, designed in an almost square shape in the wax-casting model, are again a typical hallmark of a Giambologna bronze. Dividing lines are engraved between the different bodies, the body of the Crouching Old Man and the base; and to indicate body folds, as between the upper and lower legs of the Old Man and between his back and upper right arm. Such extensive cold work is a key element of any Giambologna bronze, as is attested to by the 1580 Fortuna letter, according to which ‘la maggiore spesa è nella pulitura, nella quale va tempo et grandissima diligenza’ (‘the greatest expenditure is in the cleaning, which requires time and the greatest diligence’; ibid. Dhanens p. 346). 

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