Ink pot with Three Eagles

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 16

Inventory

PV 09314

Material and technique

Bronze, glossy black lacquer

Author

Venetian School

Dating

Late 16th century

Dimensions

26.5x19.5x18.5 cm.

Origin

Barsanti Collection (1934)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This little inkwell is held by three frightful eagles, whose beaks are open and wings are spread; it is thought to date from the second half of or the end of the 16th century. On the edge of the lid there are three little angels' heads in relief, while on top there is a small nude man with a helmet and a spear, which was added during restoration; Santangelo considered the figure to be a "statue of Mars, inspired by Tiziano Aspetti". Previously, Benacchio Flores d'Arcais had attributed the ink-pot "with certainty" to Aspetti, noting how the figure of Mars “recalled the modelling and the facial expressions of the Virtues in the High Altar in the Basilica del Santo in Padua”. But Aspetti's beautiful statues for the Basilica should not rightly be compared with this small figure of Mars, a mediocre version of one of the numerous reworkings of the warrior.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), catalogue of the collection, Bergamo 1922, p. 127, no. 88; M. Benacchio Flores D'Arcais, Vita e opere di Tiziano Aspetti, in "Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova", XXVII-XXVIII, 1934-1939, V, p. 106, fig. 47; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 49.