Ink-pot with Kneeling Monk

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 16

Inventory

PV 09265

Material and technique

Bronze, patina, lacquer

Author

Paduan School

Dating

c. 1500-1550

Dimensions

14.5 x 17.6 x 11.6 cm.

Origin

Barsanti Collection (1934)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

Previous studies have attributed this inkwell to a Paduan workshop of the late 15th century, but it should be dated to the first half of the 16th century. It depicts a kneeling monk looking skyward, understood to represent St. Francis “receiving the stigmata”. The trapezoidal base is decorated with tendrils and is supported by three masks, a frequent feature of Paduan bronzes, as seen in other inkwells in the museum, such as Atlas with the Globe, Marcus Aurelius with a Cornucopia, and Kneeling Satyr with a Horn. Evidence of an old restoration can be seen in one of the masks.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), Bergamo 1922, no. 38, p. 55; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 27; P. Cannata, in M. De Vincenti - E. Gastaldi (eds.), Donatello e il suo tempo: il bronzetti a Padova nel Quattrocento e nel Cinquecento, exh. cat., Milan 2001, pp. 78-79.