Vulcan

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 16

Inventory

PV 09260

Material and technique

Bronze, patina, lacquer

Author

Workshop of Severo da Ravenna

Dating

16th century

Dimensions

21 x 16 x 11.5 cm.

Origin

Barsanti Collection (1934)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

Pollak and Planiscig both believed this work to be by a follower of Riccio. Santangelo, though, despite acknowledging a “close stylistic connection with the Maestro dei Monti Infernali Figdor”, opted not to specify the Padua workshop where the bronze was fused, but dated it to around 1495. The Palazzo Venezia Vulcan is in fact an interesting studio version of the Parisian bronze, demonstrated by the soft definition of the musculature, and the repetitive work of the beard and hair; the author only adds particular definition to the tongue in the half-open mouth. The original inspiration for this model can be seen in another version of Vulcan that was formerly in the Parisian collection of Martin Le Roy, before passing in 1929 into the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

L. PLaniscig, Venezianische bildhauer der Renaissance, Vienna 1921, p. 148; L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), Bergamo 1922, no. 33, p. 48; L. Planiscig, Andrea Riccio, Vienna 1927, pp. 96 and 477, fig. 92; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. La Collezione Auriti, Rome 1964, p. 28; W. Bode - J.D. Draper, The Italian bronze statuettes of the Renaissance, New York 1980, p. 92, pl. XL.