Lot 101: Attributed to Antonio Francesco Selvi (1679-1753) Italian, Florence, circa 1750 , a red wax relief of a stag attacked by four leopards depicting leopards attacking a stag within a grotto with classical ruins, in giltwood frame

depicting leopards attacking a stag within a grotto with classical ruins, in giltwood frame

measurements note 43 by 57.5cm., 17 by 22 5/8 in.

A pupil of Massimiliano Soldani, Selvi is best known as the most prolific Baroque medallist in Florence during the twilight of the Medici. His earliest dated medal is 1711 and more than 109 portrait medals and a series of 111 medals commemorating the Medici dynasty are attributed to him. Selvi's style is indebted to Soldani and he is recorded as having worked in bronze and as a modeller in lead for works in porcelain and in wax for cameos. The present relief is a fine example of his skilled handling of wax. This fantasy scene of a stag attacked by leopards in a rocky landscape with classical ruins is a design for a pietra dura panel today in the Hofburg, Vienna (see illustration). This was first connected with a payment dated December 1750, published by Alvar Gonzalez Palacios: 'Pertanto pagati a Antonio Selvi per aver fatto un modello di cera per un quadro da farsi in bassorilievo scudi 40' (Florence, Archivio di Stato Guardaroba,72). The pietra dura panel of a stag attacked by leopards was one of a large group of panels which were sent to Vienna at the time. The majority of the Vienna panels are after designs by Giuseppe Zocchi and are quite different in style from the present scene. Selvi's design differs from the finished pietra dura panel in only minor details; notably in the more complex arrangement of branches in the top left corner of the composition. As the payment to Selvi does not mention the precise subject, Gonzalez Palacios raises an element of doubt in the attribution to Selvi. However, it is clear that considering the date Selvi was commissioned to make a wax model and the stylistic difference between this and the Zocchi panels, the attribution is convincing. RELATED LITERATURE
A. Gonzalez Palacios, Il tempio del gusto. Le arti decorative in Italia fra classicismo e barocco. Il granducato di Toscana e gli stati settentrional, Milan, 1986, p.111; F. Rossi, La pittura di pietra: dall'arte del mosaico allo splendour delle pietre dure, 2002, pp.42-44