Candlestick with Three Sphinxes

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 16

Inventory

PV 09326

Material and technique

Bronze, natural brown patina

Author

attributed to Andrea di Bartolomeo Alessandri called il Bresciano (doc. 1564-before 1575)

Dating

1564-1574

Dimensions

18 x 19 x 17.5 cm.

Origin

Barsanti Collection (1934)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

Pollak and Santangelo believed this small bronze to have been fused in Venice at the end of the 16th century. It was described as having an “extraordinary freshness and beauty” with a “wonderful natural dark patina”. It is very similar to the base of an ancient relic holder in the Treasury of St. Mark’s in Venice, which has been restored several times over the centuries. The same model was used during the 1500s, as seen in a base, similar to the Palazzo Venezia example here, with the same three old sphinxes, which surfaced on the London art market in 1980. The candlestick here shows strong similarities with the bronzes of Andrea Bresciano: the accentuated arching of the backs of the young men and the Sirens on the pedestal for the cross made for the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro in 1567, now in the Accademia, is identical to the old, gruesome sphinxes in this work. The use of decorative curls and scrolls is very similar too; these motifs serve to substitute some parts of the body or provide architectural features where, in some of Bresciano’s other works, figures of Satyrs are placed.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), catalogue of the collection, Bergamo 1922, p. 138, no. 99; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 37.