Lot 59: ATTRIBUTED TO GIOVANNI FRANCESCO SUSINI (1585-1653), ITALIAN, FLORENCE, FIRST HALF 17TH CENTURY

ATTRIBUTED TO GIOVANNI FRANCESCO SUSINI (1585-1653), ITALIAN, FLORENCE, FIRST HALF 17TH CENTURY CHRISTO MORTO bronze 22.9cm., 9in.

This bronze corpus is a variant of Giambologna's celebrated Cristo Morto, commissioned for the altar of the Salviati Chapel in the Convent of San Marco, Florence (c. 1588). The fine quality of the present bronze, evident in the detailed modelling of the toenails and the fingers, together with the smoothly filed surfaces and the golden and red brown patina, point to the hand of Gianfrancesco Susini (1585-1653). As in many of Gianfrancesco's bronzes, there is relatively little chasing in the hair.

Gianfrancesco Susini was the nephew of Antonio Susini (1572-1624), Giambologna's most talented studio assistant. After the death of his uncle in 1620, Gianfrancesco, a highly skilled bronze caster, took over his workshop and reproduced many of Giambologna's finest models. His work includes a lifesize crucifix (1634–6) in the church of SS Michele e Gaetano, Florence, and the Abduction of Helen (1626) a signed cast of which is in the Skulpturensammlung, Staatliche Museen, Dresden [inv. H.153/G].

RELATED LITERATURE
C. Avery, Giambologna, Oxford, 1987, pp. 193-202; C. Avery and A. Radcliffe, Giambologna. Sculptor to the Medici, London, 1978, pp. 142-146; A. Radcliffe and N. Penny, Art of the Renaissance Bronze 1500-1650, London, 2004, nos. 33, 34, pp. 196-203