Lion Attacking a Stallion

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 17

Inventory

PV 09287

Material and technique

Bronze, reddish Florentine lacquer

Author

Giovan Francesco Susini (c. 1575 - 1653)

Dating

Late 16th - early 17th century

Dimensions

25 x 33 x 25 cm.

Origin

Barsanti Collection (1934)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This work is inspired by a classical marble sculpture that was installed, at various times, on the Capitoline hill. The different bronzes that tackle the theme of the lion attacking the stallion have their origins in the work of Giambologna and his studio, or his contemporaries working in Florence in the studio in Borgo Pinti. Baldinucci explains that Giambologna employed Antonio Susini to work on the equestrian monument for Cosimo I in Piazza della Signoria in Florence, and subsequently requested his help on all his works. Susini was also asked to accompany Giambologna on trips to Lombardy and Rome where the latter was asked to copy the cities’ greatest statues. Following these instructions, Susini made copies of the statues on the Capitol, in around 1580, and the first bronze versions of the theme were executed thereafter. The Palazzo Venezia version corresponds to the model made by Susini before its restoration in 1594, but it cannot be attributed to the artist himself. Susini was one of the most skilled and refined bronze sculptors working in Florence at the time, and this work evidently lacks his stamp of quality. It was executed, instead, by his nephew Giovan Francesco Susini, the son of Antonio’s brother, Piero. For many years these works by Giovan Francesco Susini and Antonio Susini’s wonderful original treatments of the theme were exhibited in the same room in Palazzo Venezia. Displayed side by side, the differences between the two pairs, in terms of size and quality, were evident.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), catalogue of the collection, Bergamo 1922, no. 60 p. 86; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 56; A. Radcliffe, The Robert H. Smith Collection. Bronzes 1500-1650, London 1994; A. Radcliffe - N. Penny, The Robert H. Smith Collection. Art of the Renaissance Bronze 1500-1650, London 2004.