Lot 77: ATTRIBUTED TO MATTHIAS KOLB (ACTIVE 18TH CENTURY)SOUTH GERMAN, MUNICH, MID-18TH CENTURY

PROPERTY FROM A MIDDLE RHENISH PRIVATE COLLECTION THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST ivory and fruitwood, set with glass eyes 35 by 31 by 13.5cm., 13¾ by 12 1/8 by 5¼in.

Sotheby's London, 22 April 1993, lot 187

This fine combination group with the Baptism of Christ is close to the small ivory and fruitwood sculptures made by Simon Troger, an Austrian sculptor who was active in Munich. Such works mostly represent religious, mythological and bucolic subjects, and are characterised by the technique of combining ivory, fruitwood and glass. They were particularly sought after by members of the aristocracy, who enjoyed the irony of using expensive and exotic materials to represent often humble subjects. Troger's principal patron was Maximilian III Joseph, Prince Elector of Bavaria (1727-1777), who is believed to have commissioned many of the sculptor's works as lavish gifts. Combination groups (Kombinationsgruppen) are believed to have originated in late 17th-century South Germany and Austria. There are a number of elaborate examples with religious subjects in the Museo degli Argenti in Florence, which appear to prefigure the present group in their use of rocky landscape settings carved from wood; see, for example, the extraordinary St. Michael fighting Lucifer (inv. no. A.s.e. 167). This art was developed with great success by Troger, and it is often to his hand that such works are ascribed. The present group, however, can be attributed to Matthias Kolb, who was one of Troger's most talented students. The Rococo drapery, which sits on the figures' hips, is very close to that seen in his Beggar with a Book in the Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden (Syndram, op. cit., p. 80). Particularly interesting are the straps, which bind the drapes together. Such straps also appear on the Grünes Gewölbe Beggar, and can be seen on a figure of Zeus in the Reiner Winkler collection, which has been attributed to Kolb (Theuerkauff, op. cit., no. 30). In addition, whilst the naturalistic base would indicate that the present group was not produced by Troger himself (his bases are more abstract, with a grooved surface), the superb carving of the faces and the dextrous hands would strongly indicate that it was created by someone who worked closely with the master, and, given the comparisons noted above, that artist is likely to be Matthias Kolb. RELATED LITERATURE C. Theuerkauff, Elfenbein. Sammlung Reiner Winkler, Munich, 1984, pp. 66-7, no. 30; E. von Philippovich, 'Kombinationsfiguren aus Elfenbein und Holz', Kunst in Hessen und am Mittelrhein, vol. 17, 1997, pp. 27-35; D. Syndram, Die Barocke Schatzkammer Das Gruene Gewolbe zu Dresden, Dresden, 2006, p. 80; S. Defrin, 'Recognizing the Hand of Simon Troger (1683-1768)', R. Marth and M. Trusted (eds.), Sculpture Studies in Honour of Christian Theuerkauff, Munich, 2012, pp. 178-84