Charity
- Object belonging
- One's own
- Category
- Bronze sculpture
- City
- Rome
- Location
- Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia
- Specific location
- Room 17
- Inventory
- PV 10792
- Material and technique
- Bronze, natural brown patina, dark-brown lacquer
- Author
- attributed to Francesco Bertos (1678-1741)
- Dating
- Late 17th-early 18th century
- Dimensions
- 12.5 x 6 x 5 cm.
- Origin
- Auriti Collection (1963)
- Image copyright
- SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma
Short description
Contrasting views have been put forward regarding the authorship of this work. Planiscig, in the catalogue of the Auriti Collection, attributes to the bronze to an Italo-Flemish artist of the 17th century, noting that it recalled the small group compositions by Duquesnoy. Santangelo highlighted it as a work of exceptional skill, attributing it to an anonymous Venetian artist of the late 16th century. While Santangelo may be right that the bronze was produced in Venice, it is in fact little more than a bozzetto, or model: there is only an approximate level of modelling, the gestures are not emphasized and the facial expressions are difficult to define. Avery has recently stressed that this bronze, together with some others in private collections, ought to be attributed to Bertos and be considered as bozzetti.
Pietro Cannata
Bibliography
A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. La Collezione Auriti, Rome 1964, p. 21; C. Avery, The Triumph of Motion: Francesco Bertos (1678 - 1741) and the Art of Sculpture, Turin 2008, p. 267.