Lot 53: AN ITALIAN BRONZE MODEL OF JUPITER

AN ITALIAN BRONZE MODEL OF JUPITER
20TH CENTURY, AFTER ALESSANDRO VITTORIA (1525-1608)
Depicted standing in contrapposto, with his right hand raised and lacking a thunderbolt, a gilt eagle at his feet, on a square-section plinth mounted with lion masks
19 in. (48.2 cm.) high

VENETIAN SPLENDOUR

"I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs; A palace and a prison on each hand; I saw from out the wave of her structure's rise As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand: A thousand years their cloudy wings expand Around me, and a dying Glory smiles O'er the far times, when many a subject land Look'd to the winged Lion's marble pines, Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles." Lord Byron, Childe Harold (canto IV, st. 1)

Lord Byron writing in the early nineteenth century encapsulates the beauty, mystery and timeless qualities of the magical floating city of Venice. Founded in the seventh century, Venice grew to be one of the largest cities in Europe and the capital of a great trading empire whose reach extended far beyond its Adriatic location. The works of art offered here exemplify the rich artistic heritage of the city from the model of Niccolo dei Conti's huge bronze vere da pozza in the courtyard of Palazzo Ducale and the Colleoni Monument in the Scuola di S. Marco to the micromoasic mirror from the glass-making island of Murano and the fifteenth century marble cistern carved from the Veneto marble rosso Verona. This selection allows you to have a small piece of Venice wherever you are in the world.