Lot 44: Circle of Andrea Briosco, called Il Riccio (1470-1532) Italian, Padua, circa 1530-1540 , satyress bronze on a wood base

bronze on a wood base

measurements note figure: 23.5cm., 9¼in. base: 4.5cm., 1 7/8 in.

The Satyress is closely related to a similar cast of the same model, which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and forms a pair with a male satyr (Untermyer collection, accession no. 64-101-1415 and 64-101-1416; formerly Richard von Kaufmann collection, sold Paul Cassirer & Hugo Helbing, Berlin, 4 December 1917, lot 214). The satyress in New York is shown holding a lyre in her right hand, and with her left hand resting on a vase; the satyr symmetrically holds panpipes in his left and grasps the handle of a standing vase with his right. Traditionally attributed to the eminent Paduan bronze sculptor Andrea Riccio, the pair in New York has more recently been absorbed into the oeuvre of Desiderio da Firenze, however the discussion of the model's attribution continues. Seen by several scholars as Riccio's foremost follower, Manfred Leithe-Jasper has questioned the legitimacy of constructing a figurative oeuvre for this master, who is documented only as a caster of a voting urn and the cover of a baptismal font (the latter after Tiziano Minio's model). The present satyress follows the anatomical ideal of the human (and half-human) figure developed by Riccio, with its broad shoulders, relatively small breasts, the crisp hair on the legs and three-dimensionally articulated upper two pairs of bones of the sternum. The fact that the leaf covering the genitalia was cast together with the human figure, however, points to the generation of Riccio's followers.

RELATED LITERATURE
B. Jestaz, "Desiderio da Firenze, bronzier à Padoue au XVIe siècle, ou le faussaire de Riccio," Monuments Piot, 84, 2005, pp. 99-171, in particular p. 121 & fig. 21; J. Warren, "'The Faun Who Plays on the Pipes': A New Attribution to Desiderio da Firenze", Small Bronzes in the Renaissance, ed. by D. Pincus, Washington, DC & New Haven, Connecticut, 2001, pp. 82-103; M. Leithe-Jasper, review of "Small Bronzes in the Renaissance," Burlington Magazine, 144, 2002, pp. 760-761