Lot 109: A PAIR OF CARVED MARBLE BUSTS OF COURTESANS

A PAIR OF CARVED MARBLE BUSTS OF COURTESANS
FOLLOWER OF GIUSTO LE COURT (1627-1679), LATE 17TH OR EARLY 18TH CENTURY
Each on a later square marble socle; very minor chips and damages
19½ and 20 in. (49.6 and 50.7 cm.) high, 24½ and 25 in. (62.2 and 63.5 cm.) high, overall (2)

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
A. Bacchi ed., La scultura a Venezia da Sansovino a Canova, Milan, 2000.

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These busts represent an ideal type of female beauty, and were certainly executed in the late 17th or early 18th century. They follow in the artistic tradition of Giusto Le Court, a Flemish sculptor who spent most of his career in Venice. With their delicate features and upturned, rounded faces, they recall works such as Le Court's full-length figures of Justice and Fortitude on the monument to Alvise Mocenigo in San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti (see Bacchi, op. cit., figs. 411 and 412).