Bronze Figure of Judith With the Head of Holofernes 18th century, after a model by Tiziano Aspetti

Lot description

On a later stepped green marble base. Height overall 12 1/4 in (31.2 cm) A similar example within the permanent collection of the Fogg Museum at Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts Tiziano Aspetti was a leading Venetian sculptor working in bronze at the end of the 16th century. A comparable bronze sculpture, currently housed in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, Germany, was initially attributed to Aspetti in 1918 by the renowned historian Leo Planiscig. The attribution was based on similarities found in Aspetti's Virtues and Angels created for the altar of the chapel of Saint Antonio in the church of the Santo in Padua. The half-life-size Virtues, contrasted with the three Franciscan saints in the manner of Donatello that accompany the subjects, exhibit small heads and elongated figures draped elegantly, which are distinctive features of Aspetti's sculptural technique. Aspetti's portrayal of Peace and Fortitude displays similar modeling characteristics and maintains a consistent exaggerated pose often in contrapposto, depicted clothed bearing specific attributes associated with their symbolic representations.