Lot 115: Francesco Bertos

Francesco Bertos
Italian, 18th century
a pair of venetian bronze allegorical female figures
on black and dark-red veined coloured marble socles, the figures possibly representing Spring and Summer (2)
35 cm., 13 3/4 in.
Bertos' figures and groups are typified by their small heads with pinched features and slender elongated limbs which often rise in a complex pyramidal arrangement of acrobatically posed figures. They are usually allegorical as in the present pair, whose respective attributes of a floral garland, and a sun, appear to represent Spring and Summer.
Bertos is recorded as working in Rome in 1693 and in Venice in 1710. He must have settled in that city judging by the large numbers of statues by his hand to be found there. Known commissions include work for Marshal Schulenburg, the basilica of the Santo (Padua), the Villa Manin at Passariano and Palazzo Sagredo. His work is idiosyncratic when compared to contemporary Venetian sculpture, and it is likely that Bertos created a demand for his work, rather than satisfying a pre-existing one.