Roebuck attacked by hound
In 1784, the sculptor-restorer Francesco Antonio Franzoni incorporated ancient fragments into the marble group of this composition, which he assembled for Pope Pius VI. It is among the peculiar delights of the Vatican Museums’ Sala degli Animali, where it is paired with Franzoni’s similarly reconstructed Stag Attacked by a Hound.[1] Bronze reductions ensued in large numbers. Alvar González-Palacios assigned a cast of the Stag group to the prolific founder Francesco Righetti, but neither it nor the Roebuck model occurs in the price lists of Righetti or of his contemporary Giovanni Zoffoli.[2] The Stag group is glossier in appearance than the present one, whose master interested himself in providing the beasts with furry hides in place of the Vatican marble’s matte surfaces.[3] The surface is patinated a rich, dark brown. The roebuck’s right hind leg was broken just below the joint and repaired with solder.
-JDD
Footnotes
(For key to shortened references see bibliography in Allen, Italian Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022.)
1. González-Palacios 2013, nos. 169, 171.
2. Ibid., p. 35, fig. 16. The cast was then in the collection of Jacques Petit-Horry, Paris. For the price lists, see Haskell and Penny 1981, appendix.
3. Yet another foundry produced variations on the pelts in a pair sold at Sotheby’s, London, April 12, 1990, lot 126.
-JDD
Footnotes
(For key to shortened references see bibliography in Allen, Italian Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022.)
1. González-Palacios 2013, nos. 169, 171.
2. Ibid., p. 35, fig. 16. The cast was then in the collection of Jacques Petit-Horry, Paris. For the price lists, see Haskell and Penny 1981, appendix.
3. Yet another foundry produced variations on the pelts in a pair sold at Sotheby’s, London, April 12, 1990, lot 126.
Artwork Details
- Title: Roebuck attacked by hound
- Date: after 1784
- Culture: Italian, Rome
- Medium: Bronze
- Dimensions: Height: 5 in. (12.7 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture-Bronze
- Credit Line: Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1968
- Object Number: 68.141.26
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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Giovanni Giardini (Italian, Forlì 1646–1722 Rome)
ca. 1702
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, Naples 1598–1680 Rome)
ca. 1616–17
Pietro Bernini (Italian, 1562–1629)
1616–17
Giuliano Finelli (Italian, Carrara 1601–1653 Rome)
1631–32
Probably cast by Johann Jakob Kornmann (called Cormano) (born Augsburg 1620, active Rome, died after 1672)
ca. 1632
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