Tiber

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Terracotta sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 20

Inventory

PV 10356

Material and technique

Terracotta

Author

Sculptor from central-northern Italy

Dating

Second quarter of 16th century

Dimensions

32 cm.

Origin

Pollak Collection (1947)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This terracotta originally came from the Palazzo Miniscalchi Erizzo in Verona and from there passed into the collection of the archaeologist Ludwig Pollak; in 1947, Margaret Nicod Sussmann, Pollak’s sister-in-law, gave it to the Palazzo Venezia museum. It was first studied by Brinckmann (1924) who published it as a work of the school of Jacopo Sansovino; in 1954, Santangelo noted that the unexceptional quality of the work meant it was less likely to be by Sansovino’s pupils and more probably by less gifted followers. From that point there have been no further studies and the statuette is now generically attributed to the Verona school, given its provenance. Indeed, a proper analysis of the work is problematic also because of its precarious condition, with only the bust and the head, and the right arm and cornucopia, still whole, while the rest of the body is badly damaged. The strong sculpture of the musculature of the torso and the right leg, together with the precise definition of other bodily features and the hair, hint at the hand of a rather gifted artist, one well informed on classical statuary. The unknown sculptor perhaps knew the maquette of Personification of a River, attributed to Jacopo Sansovino and now in the Ca’ d’Oro in Venice (inv. Sc. 76), but compared to Sansovino’s model the work in question lacks the same robustness in the figure and is more Mannerist in the pose and movement. On these grounds it seems fair to broaden the geographical area of production to include central Italy, more particularly mid-16th century Tuscany.

Cristiano Giometti 

Bibliography

A. E. Brinckmann, Barockbozzetti, 1924, II, p. 16; A. Santangelo (ed.), Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle opere, Rome 1954, p. 86