Thursday, December 31, 2015

Renaissance metalwork at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Anonymous Italian sculptor
Siren
  ca 1570-1590
bronze
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Anonymous Italian sculptor
Siren
ca. 1570-1590
bronze
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Anonymous Italian sculptor
Siren
ca. 1570-1590
bronze
Metropolitan Museum of Art

No miniature, the bronze siren at the Metropolitan Museum measures more than a yard across. She was probably made for the Colonna family in Rome toward the end of the 16th century, passing into the collections of the high-flying and rapacious Barberini family during the first part of the 17th century. Curators report a 1644 inventory describing "a siren of bronze, with a crown on her head" displayed in a small room in the Palazzo Barberini apartments of Cardinal Antonio Barberini.

More Renaissance metalwork of equally staggering remoteness and refinement appears below 

Filarete
Cincinnatus at the Plough
ca. 1450
bronze plaquette
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ludovico del Duca
Angel
ca. 1590-1600
bronze
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giambologna
Triton
1560s
bronze
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giambologna
Triton
1560s
bronze
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alessandro Vittoria
St. Sebastian
1566
bronze
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alessandro Vittoria
St. Sebastian
1566
bronze
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alessandro Vittoria
St. Sebastian
1566
bronze
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Filippo Negroli
Burgonet
1543
steel
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Filippo Negroli
Burgonet
1543
steel
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Filippo Negroli
Burgonet
1543
steel
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Filippo Negroli
Burgonet
1543
steel
Metropolitan Museum of Art