ARLECCHINO by Fausto Melotti

Arlecchino

1950

Fausto Melotti

Acquired by Pinacoteca di Brera

Sculptures

FORTITUDE AND FAITH by Tiziano Aspetti

Tiziano Aspetti (Padua, 1559 - Pisa, 1606) FORTITUDE AND FAITH Pair of bronze figures 50x17x12 cm Comparison bibliography L. Planiscig, The Giacinto Auriti Collection, Vienna 1931, no. 15; J. Pope-Hennessy, Italian Bronze Statuettes I-II, in "Essays on Italian Sculpture," London-New York 1968, pp. 172-198; P. Cannata, in S. E. Zuraw - M. G. Barberini - P. Cannata - M. L. Casanova (eds.), Masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture from the Palazzo Venezia, Rome, exhibition catalog, Athens (Georgia) 1996, pp. 50-51, n. 6; D. Banzato, Bronzes of the Renaissance: Vok Collection, Padua 2004, nn.26-27, pp. 78-79

Sculptures

Bronze of Vitellius

Francesco Righetti (studio) (Roma 1738-1819) brown patinated bronze depicting Emperor Vitellius , on a Giallo Antico marble base shaped as a Porta Santa marble fluted column H. (overall) 50 cm ; 19⅔ in. From the series of Twelve Caesars produced by the Roman studio of Francesco Righetti (1749–1819), this bust is based on the antique model in the Museo Archeologico in Venice, known as Vitellius Grimani . Vitellius was briefly emperor in 69 CE, and the Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius (second century CE) contains an account of his life. In the sixteenth century, painters and sculptors began to generate many portrayals of the sovereign; among these was Gian Battista della Porta (c.1542–1597), who made a copy of Vitellius Grimani for the Palazzo Borghese in Rome. The 1794 catalogue in French listing works offered by Francesco Righetti's studio describes a series of Twelve Caesars costing'12 sequins each'. The present bust of Vitellius was one of these.

Sculptures

River God in terracotta

River God reclining on an urn Terracotta slip on a later stand in white and grey Sainte-Anne marble In Greek mythology they were the sons of the river god Oceanus, the most ancient of Titans who fought Jupiter for the supremacy of the world. Because they irrigated the land, rivers were worshipped in local Greek cults as fertily gods. As rivers were sacred, particularly in dry lands, so were fountains and springs, represented by nymphfs, the female counterparts of river gods. First half of the 18th century 29,5 cm high, 43,2 cm wide, 20 cm deep 11 5⁄8 inch high, 17 inch wide, 7 7⁄8 inch deep