An Italian patinated bronze model of the Dancing Faun after the Antique, late 17th century, portrayed nude, depicted with a cymbal in each hand and with his right foot on a scabellum, mounted to a stepped rectangular variegated grey and white marble plinth, 28 cm high overall The Dancing Faun is first recorded in a treatise on Roman costume by Albert Rubens, published in 1665 (eight years after the author's death in 1657). There the Ancient marble is mentioned as being in the collection of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence. This grinning faun was much admired by artists across Europe, with sculptor Massimiliano Soldani Benzi even calling it the 'most beautiful statue to be seen' in 1695. Several bronze statuettes of the Faun manufactured by the workshop of Soldani Benzi have in fact appeared on the market, see for example Christie's, Sculpture, 2 December 1997, lot 120. It is of course possible that the present lot (which has similar dimensions) originates from the same prolific workshop, however unlike these examples the present Faun has a fig leaf covering his genitals. The many subtle differences between the various 17th and 18th century versions of the Roman marble show the often creative and interpretive process of creating sculptures after the Antique. Literature: Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique, Yale University Press, 1981, pp. 205-208
An Italian patinated bronze model of the Dancing Faun after the Antique, late 17th century, portrayed nude, depicted with a cymbal in each hand and with his right foot on a scabellum, mounted to a stepped rectangular variegated grey and white marble plinth, 28 cm high overall The Dancing Faun is first recorded in a treatise on Roman costume by Albert Rubens, published in 1665 (eight years after the author's death in 1657). There the Ancient marble is mentioned as being in the collection of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence. This grinning faun was much admired by artists across Europe, with sculptor Massimiliano Soldani Benzi even calling it the 'most beautiful statue to be seen' in 1695. Several bronze statuettes of the Faun manufactured by the workshop of Soldani Benzi have in fact appeared on the market, see for example Christie's, Sculpture, 2 December 1997, lot 120. It is of course possible that the present lot (which has similar dimensions) originates from the same prolific workshop, however unlike these examples the present Faun has a fig leaf covering his genitals. The many subtle differences between the various 17th and 18th century versions of the Roman marble show the often creative and interpretive process of creating sculptures after the Antique. Literature: Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique, Yale University Press, 1981, pp. 205-208
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.jpg?height=400 "Source: Christie's")
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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