Book Description

*This richly illustrated and scholarly catalogue accompanies an exhibition at Carlton Hobbs in New York, January 2017. Among the 25 beautiful works, dating from the early Renaissance to the Neoclassical period, are important statuettes by masters such as Gianfrancesco Susini, Willem Danielsz van Tetrode, Masimiliano Soldani-Benzi, Pietro Tacca and Joseph Nollekens.This elegant catalog accompanies the latest in a series of acclaimed exhibitions by Tomasso Brothers Fine Art at Carlton Hobbs LLC in New York (19-27 January 2017). It includes works by some of the greatest European sculptors from the Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical periods - a serene polychromed stucco Madonna and Child by the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti (c.1378-1455) from c.1423-40, along with two polychrome glazed terracottas by Santi (1494-1576) and Benedetto Buglioni (1459-1521). There are also a number of newly discovered masterpieces in bronze, for which Tomasso Brothers are now synonymous, which include a magnificent, striding, early bronze after the antique by Willem Danielsz van Tetrode (c.1525-1580). Intriguingly, the Castiglioni Hercules and Antaeus by Pietro Tacca is conjectured to have been made to celebrate a marriage between the great houses of Medici and Della Rovere, c.1620-37. The exhibition also includes a unique 'dancing' version of the ancient Borghese Satyr by Gian Francesco Susini, a highly finished composition of Ganymede and the Eagle by Massimiliano Soldani- Benzi (1656-1740) and an extremely rare gilt-bronze relief by the enigmatic court sculptor to Charles I of England, Francesco Fanelli (1577-c.1661). Amongst the finest and most exquisite objects on show are the newly discovered terracotta roundels by John Bacon the Elder (1740-1799) after frescoes found at Pompeii, that were later translated into black basalt and white stoneware versions by Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795). Other treasures in terracotta include two works by Joseph Nollekens (1732-1823) depicting Eve bewailing the death of Abel and Lot and his Daughters, both believed to have been bought by J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) in Nollekens' posthumous sale of 1823. The carefully researched entries accompany beautiful photography and are bolstered by significant contributions from Charles Avery, Giancarlo Gentilini, Stefano Grandesso and Lorenzo Principi.