Lot 495: AN ITALIAN TERRACOTTA ALLEGORICAL FIGURE OF SUMMER, FROM THE WORKSHOP OF FILIPPO DELLA VALLE (1698-1768), MID 18TH CENTURY

AN ITALIAN TERRACOTTA ALLEGORICAL FIGURE OF SUMMER, FROM THE WORKSHOP OF FILIPPO DELLA VALLE (1698-1768), MID 18TH CENTURY height 16 3/4 in.; 42.5cm

This charming rococo figure of Summer recalls the work of Camillo Rusconi and his four marbles depicting the Seasons, now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. However, the treatment of the figure is closer to the work of his pupil Filippo Della Valle author of the tomb of Andrea Corsini in San Giovanni in Laterano, the relief of the Annunciation in the Roman church St. Ignatius, and the Visitation in the Chigi chapel of the Duomo in Siena, each of which incorporate similar types of putti including the fleshy lips and small eyes with large pupils and irises indicated with deeply incised lines. This piece also shares distinctive features with a terracotta model of a cherub by Della Valle in the Bode Museum, Berlin (Schlegel, op. cit., cat. no. 27, fig. 27).

Trained in the workshop of his uncle, the famous sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini in Florence, Filippo della Valle (1698-1768) moved to Rome to work with Camillo Rusconi. In 1725 he won first prize with Pietro Bracci at the Academy St. Luke. He received orders from Pope Clement XII and Benedict XIV, and counted among his most famous sculptures of the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

RELATED LITERATURE

U. Schlegel, Die Italienischen Bildwerke des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Staatliche Museeun, Berlin, 1978