Base of a Candlestick with Tritons

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 16

Inventory

PV 09259

Material and technique

Bronze, dark natural patina, opaque black lacquer

Author

Venetian School (manner of the Lombardos)

Dating

16th century

Dimensions

10x13.5x14.3 cm.

Origin

Barsanti Collection (1934)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

The bronze was previously considered to be a hexagonal ink-pot without its lid. In fact, though, it is the base of a small candlestick, decorated with shells and foliage around the hole at the top where the stem of the candleholder, now missing, would have been inserted. The artist must have drawn inspiration from the bas-reliefs of the Venetian church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli, which were carved in the 1580s by the Lombardo workshop: Tullio Lombardo and his brother Antonio depicted hybrid figures around the base of the altar’s pillars; while some of the figures have wings, all have very long fish tails, which serve to provide a base for the bas-reliefs on the sides of the pillars, where these figures interact with cherubs, sirens and sea centaurs. The fact that the small candlestick base was derived from the sculptures of Santa Maria dei Miracoli is not necessary to determine its date: the 1480s marked the beginning of period in which artists, inspired by antiquity, rendered figures with more fantasy, a practice which would continue in Venice into the early 16th century. This small bronze serves to uniquely document the success of these representations since it is derived, solely, from the works of the Lombardo brothers.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), catalogue of the collection, Bergamo 1922, p. 47, no. 32; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 49.