Mantuan Roundel, Venus, Mars, Cupid and Vulcan
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1 RCEWA – Mantuan Roundel, Venus, Mars, Cupid and Vulcan Statement of the Expert Adviser to the Secretary of State that the roundel meets Waverley criteria two and three. Further Information The ‘Applicant’s statement’ and the ‘Note of Case History’ are available on the Arts Council Website: www.artscouncil.org.uk/reviewing-committee-case-hearings Please note that images and appendices referenced are not reproduced. 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Brief Description of item A roundel depicting Venus, Mars, Cupid and Vulcan Partially gilded and silvered bronze with a deep brown/black patina Dia. 42 cm Italian, Mantuan or possibly Paduan, c.1480-1500 Condition: Other than areas of wear on the gilded rim, and minor nicks and dents over the surface, the bronze is in very good condition. The reverse retains traces of investment material and has some pale blue- green corrosion overall in the recesses; cracks due to casting flaws have been expertly repaired. The roundel has undergone conservation to remove dirt, old wax and some very small copper 1 sulphate-based pustules. Provenance: Almost certainly owned by George Treby III (c.1726-1761), and then by descent within the Treby family of Plympton, Devon until 2003; sold at Christie’s London, Important European Furniture, Sculpture and Tapestries, Thursday 11 December 2003, lot 20; then by descent until 2019; purchased by current owner Selected Sources and Literature (in chronological order): Christie’s, London, Important European Furniture, Sculpture and Tapestries, Thursday 11 December 2003, lot 20 (see Appendix 1) Export of Works of Art of Cultural Interest 2004-05, London 2005, pp.15-16 (case 1) Denise Allen in Eleanora Luciano, et al, Antico. The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes (exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Frick Collection, New York), London 2011, pp.150-51 Dylan Smith and Shelley Sturman in ibid., pp.173, 174 Richard E. Stone in ibid. p.181 n.5 David Ekserdjian in David Ekserdjian (ed.), Bronze, London 2012, p. 178 (illus.), 268 cat. No.86. http://www.antiqua.mi.it/Placchette_Venere_Magg18.html (accessed online 18 December 2020) Michael Riddick, ‘A selection of plaquettes from the Villa Cagnola: Their Function and Meaning’ – Renaissance Bronze, September 8, 2017; October 16, 2020, pp.4-20, esp. pp.11-12 (A selection of plaquettes from the Villa Cagnola: Their Function and Meaning – Renaissance Bronze (renbronze.com) (accessed online 18 December 2020). Exhibition history: Victoria and Albert Museum, London, on loan 2010-2012 Bronze, Royal Academy of Arts, London,15 September to 9 December 2012 Waverley criteria: In 2004, the roundel was export stopped and starred under Waverley criteria two and three, and it is still considered to meet those criteria. The elegant composition and exquisite treatment of this richly decorated bronze are of outstanding aesthetic importance, having clearly been created by one or more artists of exceptional talent. This spectacularly beautiful, rare and high-quality relief is larger, more complex and more refined in handling than the comparable roundels produced for the Gonzaga court in Mantua by Pier Jacopo Alari Buonacolsi, called Antico (c.1455-1528). Its iconography and classical references speak to a sophisticated patronage and understanding of the classical past by both the unknown commissioner and the unidentified designer. Despite its lack of 3 firm documentation, the roundel is of major significance for the study of North Italian bronze sculptural production within late fifteenth-century culture. In addition, its likely early provenance in Britain is relevant for the history of collecting amongst the English elite in the mid-eighteenth century. DETAILED CASE The central winged figure of Venus, the goddess of Love, holds her son Cupid, who pierces her chest with a gilded arrow while glancing toward Vulcan, god of Fire, at work at the forge. Venus’s lower body faces Vulcan, but her gaze focusses on her lover Mars, the god of War, whose helmet, emblazoned with a leaping horse, is being hammered by her cuckolded husband. A spiritello squats beneath Vulcan’s legs working the bellows, while another stands alongside Mars, attempting to draw his sword from its decorative scabbard. The exergue contains a tabula ansata with the Latin inscription announcing the narrative ‘CYPRIA MARS / ET AMOR GAVDENT / VVLCANE LABORAS’, roughly translated as ‘While Venus, Mars and Cupid enjoy themselves, Vulcan labours’. Areas are picked out in vibrant mercury-gilding, notably the hair, footwear and drapery of the figures, while other details are silvered. The bronze has an integrally cast moulded border, into which a suspension loop has been pinned slightly off-centre to account for the weighting of the bronze. The roundel is not securely documented, and prior to its discovery the design was only known through a close plaster variant, formerly in the Bardini Collection.2 It has, however, been suggested that the prominent horse (cavallo in Italian) on Mars’ helmet, could be a pun on the name of the goldsmith, sculptor and medallist Gian Marco Cavalli (c.1454-after 1508), who was variously patronized at the Gonzaga court in Mantua from 1499-1505. Cavalli is also known to have worked to other artist’s designs, including casting two bronze Spinarii after Antico, tentatively identified using alloy analysis.3 Five smaller roundels (c.1496; c.32.7 cm dia.) showing scenes from the life and labours of Hercules by Antico survive in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, the last two similarly incorporating highlights in gilding and silver.4 Notable parallels can also be seen with the treatment of the partially gilded bronze Entombment relief in the Kunsthistorisches Museum (inv. KK6059), which has been variously attributed, most recently to Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506), who was active in both Padua and Mantua;5 to Cavalli, possibly after a design by Mantegna,6 and to ‘Mantua 7 or Padua’. Depictions of Mars, Venus and Cupid in the forge of Vulcan were comparatively rare in the Renaissance. This and other related scenes (such as the Forging of Cupid’s wings and Vulcan forging the Armour of Aeneaus) were largely confined to plaquettes and engravings of around 1500 from Northern Italy.8 Classical images of Vulcan at his forge were equally rare, and Renaissance representations usually show him as an older man, perhaps hinted at here by his lined face. The pose of Mars is based on a classical intaglio of Diomedes and the Palladium, and the use of ‘Cypria’ refers to the ‘Cyprian Aphrodite’, as in Homer’s Iliad.9 Such adaptions of diverse artistic and literary sources were typical of the period, but here the designer has been particularly inventive, uniting two events that are usually depicted independently: Vulcan forging armour for Mars and his fashioning of Cupid’s wings. The story is layered still further as the inscription suggests. The sexual desire of Venus and Mars is encapsulated in their gaze, cleverly tempered by decorum, with Venus’s body literally shielded from that of the (unusually) naked Mars. The fact that Venus is magnificently winged might also carry specific meaning. This sensual intensity is off-set by the inclusion of the diminutive spiritello toying with the sword, and Cupid seemingly scowling at Vulcan who has yet to forge his wings. The latter, oblivious to all, is the butt of the central joke. The roundel demonstrates the erudition of inventor, 4 owner and any other viewers who might be invited to unravel the hidden meanings in what would have been a costly signal of status. Significantly for the Waverley criteria, the relief is stunningly beautiful, both in its design in the tondo format and in the exquisite handling of the materials. The conformal, comparatively thin casting uses less expensive bronze, while reducing the risk of casting flaws.10 The technique (and the alloy analysis) appears comparable to that used for Antico’s roundels, probably the ‘direct’ lost-wax technique, producing one-off casts, although there is scope for further research.11 This approach, together with the delicate application of mercury gilding and silvering – note especially the crow’s feet of Vulcan’s eye - suggests that it was cast and finished by a consummate craftsman (or craftsmen) with a background in goldsmithing, capable of sensitive modelling and subtle definition of forms in relief. That bronzists were trained as goldsmiths was not unusual, but this inter-connection 12 is the topic of new scholarly research, for which the roundel is apposite. While the facture, gilding and silvering can be associated with the Mantuan court, the wit and layering of meaning in the narrative chimes equally well with works produced for a humanist clientele in Padua and the Veneto, as seen in reliefs, statuettes and lamps by Andrea Riccio (1470- 1532) – albeit with a varied handling.13 The diverse attributional history of the cited Entombment, whose composition was doubtless inspired by Donatello’s stone relief of the same subject on the altar of St Anthony’s Basilica in Padua, highlights the connection between the two cities that demands further study.14 The roundel equally suggests a possible inter-play between these great centres of bronze production. The roundel was discovered amongst the possessions of the heirs of George Treby III, most likely purchased by him while he was on the Grand Tour in 1746, when he is known to have visited Florence, Rome and Naples.15 Following in the footsteps of both grandfather and father, Treby was the MP for the Rotten Borough of Plympton Erle from 1747. Introducing Treby to the antiquarian collector Cardinal Albani in Rome, Horace Mann described him as both ‘allied to several … principal families of England and very rich’,16 indicating his standing and wealth.