Lot 20: A BRONZE FIGURE OF JUPITER

A BRONZE FIGURE OF JUPITER
WORKSHOP OF ALESSANDRO VITTORIA (1525-1608), FIRST QUARTER 17TH CENTURY
Depicted standing in contrapposto, with his left hand on his chest, holding a thunderbolt in his right hand and with his right foot on his eagle; on an integrally cast circular plinth; dark brown patina with medium brown high points; minor casting flaws
12 7/8 in. (32.8 cm.) high

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
L. Planiscig, Venezianische Bildhauer der Renaissance, Vienna, 1921, p. 475, fig. 499.
Trento, Castello del Buonconsiglio, La Bellissima Maniera - Alessandro Vittoria e la scultura veneta del Cinquecento, 25 Jun. - 26 Sept. 1999, pp. 352-3, no. 78.

The bronze figure of Jupiter offered here is attributed to the workshop of Alessandro Vittoria on the basis of the identical composition and stylistic similarities it has with another bronze figure of Jupiter in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (La Bellissima Maniera, loc. cit.). In his catalogue entry for the latter bronze, Leithe-Japser discusses at length the origin and dating of the model, concluding that it was an evolution of Vittoria's bronze Neptune figures and that it was executed in the 1580s (ibid). The Kunsthistorisches bronze is evidently a more finely finished piece and may well have acted as the inspiration for the domestic bronzes, such as the one offered here, that were made in Vittoria's workshop to surmount andirons.