Lot 3. Carlo di Cesare del Palagio (Florence, 1540-1598, Mantua), Venus withholding a heart from Cupid, bronze, 76.2 cm high, the bronze. Price realised USD 1,260,000 (Estimate USD 1,000,000 – USD 2,000,000). © Christie's 2024

Provenance: Eugen Gutmann (1840-1925), Berlin, by 1912.
with Bachstitz Gallery, Berlin and the Hague, on consignment from the above, 1921-1924.
Fritz B. Gutmann (1886-1944), Amsterdam, returned by the above, 29 July 1924.
with I Rosenbaum NV, Amsterdam, on consignment from the above, 10 December 1937.
The Lieutenant Colonel The Hon. Mildmay Thomas Boscawen, D.S.O., M.C. (1892-1958), Moa, Tanganyika and London, acquired directly from the above (through Copper & Adams, London), July 1939, until before 1959.
with Copper & Adams, London, acquired directly from the above, before 1959.
Sylvia Phyllis Adams (1907-1998), London, acquired directly from the above.
Her sale; Bonham's, London, 15 December 1999, lot 95.
with Patricia Wengraf Ltd., London.
Acquired from the above, 2000.

Literature: O. von Falke, Die Kunstsammlung Eugen Gutmann, Berlin, 1912, p. 64, no. 197, pl. 51, attributed to de Vries, as Venus und Amor.
D. Diemer, 'Small Bronzes by Hubert Gerhard: A Review of Recent Scholarship', Small Bronzes in the Renaissance, Studies in the History of Art, vol. 62, Washington, D.C., 2001, pp. 202-203, figs. 11, 12, as Venus and Cupid.
D. Diemer, Hubert Gerhard und Carlo de Cesare del Palagio, Bronzeplastiker der Spätrenaissance, Berlin, 2004, vol. I, pp. 243, 280, no. 697, vol. II, pp. 170, 495-496, no. C 8, pls. 311a-c, 312a-b, as Venus und Cupido.
V. Avery, 'Unless they were really first class, I did not care to have them: Lieutenant Colonel Boscawen and his collection of sculpture', Sculpture Journal, vol. XII, London, 2004, pp. 90, 94, fig. 8, illustrated.

Exhibited: The Hague and Berlin, La Galerie Bachstitz, The Bachstitz Gallery Collection 3: Objects of Art and Paintings, 1921, no. 21.
New York, The Frick Collection, European Bronzes from the Quentin Collection, 28 September 2004-2 January 2005, pp. 218-225, no. 22.
Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Bella Figura: Europäische Bronzekunst in Süddeutschland um 1600, 6 February-25 May 2015, pp. 232-233, no. 28, as Venus enthält Cupido ein Herz vor.

Note: Venus withholding a Heart from Cupid is a marvelous study in contrasts. For a late 16th century bronze, it is impressive in size, with Venus towering over Cupid and, indeed, the viewer as well. Yet it is an intimate scene, almost familial, and could be viewed as a mother gently, but firmly, teaching a lesson to a spoilt child who is furious at not getting what he wants. There are contrasts even between the bold modeling and the delicately executed details of the bronze as well. The unlined face of Venus, with her chiseled, almost Art Deco profile, and the large, smooth passages of Venus’ body are juxtaposed against the intricate braids on Venus’ head, the dazzling feathers on Cupid’s wings, the rippled, chunky legs of Cupid and the distinctive feet of Venus, with the large spread toes which root her firmly to the base.

The present bronze has been long-associated with both Adriaen de Vries and Hubert Gerhard, as Wengraf notes in 2004. It was still being attributed to ‘de Vries’ as late as 1939 when it was sold to the well-known collector Lt-Col. M. T. Boscawen. It was Diemer who has convincingly attributed the present bronze to Palagio (Diemer, op. cit., 2001, 2004 and 2015). Palagio was recorded working for Giambologna from 1560 at the Florentine Grand Ducal court of the Medici and he also worked with Hubert Gerhard in Augsburg and Munich from the early 1580s. But it was perhaps his work for the Saxon court at Dresden, specifically on bronzes supplied to the burial chapel of the Elector Christian I (1560-1591) at Freiberg, that relate most closely to the present lot. As Diemer notes, Palagio worked in Dresden from 1590-93 and proposed this bronze might date from that moment (Diemer, op. cit., 2015). The present work may also be linked to a slightly different model of Venus and Cupid, at the time attributed to Gerhard and on loan to the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum in Berlin during the 1st two decades of the 20th century and now lost, which is known only through illustrations. Another bronze mentioned by Wengraf in 2004 that could also be linked to the present model is the figure of Hebe in the Detroit Institute of Arts that has, unsurprisingly, also been attributed to both de Vries and Gerhard.

The provenance of the present bronze quite neatly encapsulates the arc of both the study and the collecting of Renaissance bronzes from the late 19th century through to the present day, starting in Berlin in the early 20th century, continuing in English collections for much of the mid-late 20th century and eventually ending, in New York where some of the most important collections of Renaissance and Baroque bronzes still reside. The modern study of Renaissance bronzes could be considered to have started in earnest in late 19th century Berlin and continued there for the first three decades of the 20th century. This ground-breaking new approach to the study of painting, sculpture and the decorative arts – modern art history – was led by the art historian and museum director Wilhelm von Bode (1845-1929) who was named the General Director of the Berlin State Museums in 1905. In 1920, von Bode was succeeded by Otto von Falke (1862-1942). It was von Falke who first published the present bronze in 1912 when it was in the collection of Eugen Gutmann of Berlin.

Eugen Gutmann (1840-1925) was an eminent German banker with a diverse collection which included Old Master paintings, Renaissance jewelry, gold-mounted hardstone objects, bronzes, watches, maiolica, miniatures and 18th century gold boxes. After his passing, his son Fritz Gutmann (1886-1944) became the custodian of the Gutmann collection. As political tensions grew in the 1930s, Fritz founded a private bank in Amsterdam and settled his family nearby in Bosbeek, a beautiful historic home. A detailed account of the family history and the history of the Gutmann collection is given by Simon Goodman in the book The Orpheus Clock: The Search for my Family’s Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis.

While in Holland, Fritz sold Venus withholding a Heart from Cupid to Colonel Boscawen, through Copper and the young Sylvia Adams. Remarkably, Wengraf and The Frick Library have recently discovered documentation that precisely dates the purchase of the present bronze from Gutmann by (through) Rosenbaum NV in Amsterdam on 24 October, 1939 for £250 (on a check from Westminster Bank, London) with the receipt/payment going to Gutmann on 8 November 1939. With this purchase, the bronze was sent to Colonel Boscawen’s storied collection of bronzes at Moa, his vast sisal estate in remote north-east Tanganyika (now Tanzania). And while most of Boscawen’s bronzes are now at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the present bronze entered the personal collection of Sylvia Adams in 1999, the legendary London dealer who had originally sold Boscawen the bronze exactly 60 years before.

As Wengraf plainly states in the 2004 Frick exhibition catalogue: ‘No other casts of this model are known.’ And while Diemer’s work linking the present bronze to Palagio’s oeuvre has been a revelation, Venus withholding a Heart from Cupid is such a wildly original composition and modeled and finished by such an unconventional hand, that we long to know more about this sculptor Palagio.

We are grateful to Simon Goodman for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.