Art market
A memorial in New York, a weeper in London and CADA dealers exhibit online
COUNT Alessandro Fava (1622–95) was a major patron who turned his Bologna palace into an academy for young artists. He was probably inspired by the Accademia degli Incamminati, set up by the Carracci family, which, in the 1590s, had painted major frescoes in the Palazzo Fava. Among the Count’s protégés was Lorenzo Pasinelli, who established a school in the palace and was the first teacher of Giuseppe Maria Mazza (1653–1741), later the finest late-baroque sculptor of the region.
Fava was a meticulous ledger keeper and carefully marked his possessions. Thus, Mazza’s terracotta portrait bust of a young nobleman, sold by Carlo Orsi-trinity Fine Art at TEFAF New York, can be dated precisely to August 1678 (Fig 1).
It is probable that it represents one of two brothers on the Count’s family tree, another Alessandro and Ludovico, who had died, each aged 19, in 1571 and 1573, when fighting for Venice against the Turks. The first was killed at Lepanto and the second in the Peloponnese. Ludovico is perhaps the more likely candidate, as there is a likeness of the elder brother on a monument in the Basilica di San Giacomo Maggiore, which is close, but not a match.
In any event, despite not being from the life, Mazza’s bust is full of character, matching a description of Ludovico as a kindhearted ‘ardent and very lively young man’ who was ‘fair of feature’. I wonder whether the floral-sprig embroidery on his shoulder might represent a sprig of Vicia faba or broad bean. The bust sold for a seven-figure sum to a private collector in New York. Trinity Fine Art, now of 15, Old Bond Street, W1, will be taking part in the winter London Art Week, which runs from December 1 to 8, although it’s as well to check on www. londonartweek. co.uk as several of the 29 dealers’ exhibitions will be closed on one or more days. I have a great liking for pleurants, or ‘weepers’, the mourning figures that supported French and Burgundian royal tombs, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. The best of them are remarkably characterful, given that they are usually swathed in great hooded cloaks. Sam Fogg will be showing one (Fig 3) from the tomb of Count Aymon the Peaceful of Savoy (1291–1343), who was buried in the Savoyard royal chapel at the Abbey of Hautecombe on the shore of Lac du Bourget. Although he was actually quite a warrior, he earned the by-name because he was also successful in ending quarrels by negotiation. The sculptor was Jean de Brecquessent (fl. 1299–1342).
Galerie Neuse of Bremen, exhibiting at S. Franses, 80, Jermyn Street, SW1, deals in silver- and goldsmithing, together with 16th- and 17th-century Kunstkammer objects. The two specialities are equally represented in a parcel-gilt-silver Buttenmann figure (Fig 2). A Butte was a cask or basket for carrying grapes on one’s back and these figures come only from German or Swiss winemaking districts.
This one is by Christoph Ritter I, who was a master in Nuremberg from 1547, and it is inscribed for a local patrician family. Later, unsurprisingly, it spent time in a Rothschild collection, before finding its way to Hans Conrad Bodmer (1891– 1956), a collector especially of autographs, who left an unrivalled archive to the Beethoven house in Bonn.
Florian Härb of St James’s deals in master drawings of many periods. This time, he will be featuring John Sergeant (1937– 2010), a protégé and friend of the late John Ward, who is still not as well known as his fine draughtsmanship demands. This 1960 65∕8in by 5in selfportrait in chalk exemplifies its simple effectiveness (Fig 4). He was thoroughly educated in the art of his predecessors and, as Peyton Skipwith has written: ‘To hear him enthusing in front of a Palmer or Brockhurst etching was to witness a master of black and white in thrall to his peers.’
The Cotswold Antique Dealers’
Association (CADA) is marking its 40th anniversary with an online selling exhibition drawn from 30 of its members. The catalogue is well worth downloading. CADA asked them to contribute three items each, priced across the board, to represent the wide spectrum that they have to offer —from Canaletto to Chippendale, from Lowry to a longcase clock, from Renoir to a rank badge.
Until December 31, all works are interactive on www.thecada.org/ online-exhibition, so click on the images to link to the dealers.
As a taster, here are: a late15th-/early-16th-century Venetian gilt and enamelled-glass loving cup
(Fig 5) with Mayflower Antiques of Bewdley; a pair of English walnut chairs (Fig 7) with cabriole legs made in the manner of Giles Grendey during the 1720s, offered by Alderson of Tetbury; a ‘Universal Table’ made to a Sheraton design in about 1800
(Fig 9), with Christopher Clarke of Stow-on-the-wold, the campaign furniture specialist; The
Somme Front (Fig 6), a 1917 drypoint etching by James Mcbey, with Elizabeth Harveylee; and an admirable 1938 153∕4in by 193∕4in Richard Eurich of
Red Roofs, Robin Hood’s Bay (Fig 8), with Jenna Burlingham of Kingsclere. Next week Rodin’s fingerprints and my mother-in-law