Franco Adami Art

Superb 19th century bronze and gilt bronze bust of the god Belvedere Apollo. Circa 1850. This wonderful grand tour bust is a marvel of refined beauty and elegance, crafted with richl...

Mid Century carved marble flute player by Rodney Marshall Winfield (American, b. 1925). Presented in a rustic wooden frame. Unsigned. Image size: 14"H x 10"W. Framed: 20"H x 16"W. Wear to frame and age wear to marble. A painter in acrylic, designer in stain glass and silver, sculptor and long-time teacher, Rodney Winfield has had a diverse career. He was born in New York City. As a young man, he was artistically inclined and composed music, drew and painted, danced, wrote poetry and created sculpture. Choosing to focus on art, he enrolled in Cooper Union School in New York City. From 1953 to 1970, he was a stain-glass designer for Emil Frei...

Signed and dated: ‘F. Harwood Fecit 1764’ Collections: Probably commissioned by Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon (1743-1827); Probably by descent at Gordon Castle, Banffshire to c.1948; Possibly acquired by Bert Crowther of Syon Lodge, Middlesex; Jacques Hollander (1940-2004); Christie’s, 5 December 2013, lot 101; Private collection; Sotheby’s, 2 July 2019, lot 106 Literature: John Preston Neale, Views of the seats of noblemen and gentlemen, in England, Wales and Scotland, London, 1822, vol.I, unpaginated. This marble copy of an ancient bust in the Musei Capitolini usually identified as Faustina the Younger, the daughter of Antoninus Pius and future wife of Marcus Aurelius, was made in Florence by Francis Harwood in 1764. Harwood was one of the most prolific suppliers of decorative marbles for the Grand Tour market and this finely worked example demonstrates the quality of luxury goods available to travellers to Italy. So often anonymous, this unusually signed and dated example, raises questions about the status of marble copies in the period and of sculptors such as Harwood who are known principally for ornamental work. Harwood’s origins remain obscure. He is documented living in Palazzo Zuccari with Joshua Reynolds and the Irish sculptor Simon Vierpyl at Easter 1752, he had certainly settled permanently in Florence by the following year, when he is recorded working with Joseph Wilton. He was admitted to the Florentine Academy on 12 January 1755 (as pittore Inglese, although he was described as scultore in the matriculation account). After Wilson returned to England in 1755 Harwood appears to have worked in a studio near SS. Annunziata with Giovanni Battista Piamontini who had made life-size copies of The Wrestlers and The Listening Slave for Joseph Leeson in 1754. In 1758 both sculptors were contracted to make a statue and a trophy to complete the decoration of the Porta San Gallo, Harwood completing a statue of Equality, installed the following year. By 1760 Harwood was on the brink of his most productive period as a sculptor, producing copies of celebrated antiquities for the ever-increasing audience of Grand Tour travellers and for the domestic market in London. In 1761 Harwood met the young architect James Adam who was in Italy specifically to make contact with suppliers for Robert Adam’s burgeoning practice back in Britain. The Adams offered a remarkably cohesive design package to their clients, encompassing not just architecture, but fixtures, fittings and furniture as well. Harwood was able to supply the brothers with marbles for their new interiors. At Syon, for example, Harwood produced a full-size copy of Michelangelo’s Bacchus for the new dining room the Adams had designed for Hugh Smythson, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Harwood seems to have also specialised in producing sets of library busts. In 1758 Charles Compton, 7th Earl of Northampton, a distinguished traveller commissioned a set of busts which remain in situ at Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire. It is perhaps no coincidence that the Adam brothers were producing designs for new interiors at Castle Ashby at this date. The set included representations of: Cicero, Julius Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, Faustina the Younger, Sappho, Seneca and Homer. Each of these busts Harwood seems to have replicated for multiple patrons, another Adam patron, Thomas Dundas...

A good antique Italian Grand Tour Bronze and marble bust of Dante Alighieri, circa 1880. The bronze is most likely Florentine and mod...

Infused with a crisp modernity and subtle sensuality, this bronze sculpture by Cuban-born artist Agustin Cárdenas is an exceptional example of late-2...

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, (1824 1887) A Rare and Important Patinated Bronze Bust of Michelangelo On A Rouge Marble Base. Presenting an extraordinary and highly collectible ma...

"Panthers resting" by Maximilien FIOT (1886-1953) Outstanding and rare sculpture in white marble France circa 1930 height 40 cm length 66 cm Provenance : By Descent of the Boardman, Devitt and Dawkins families, New England and California. Biography : Louis-Maximilien Fiot, known as Maximilien Fiot (1886-1953) was a French sculptor. Student of the sculptor Prosper Lecourtier, he exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1910 to 1914. Member of the Salon of French Artists, Fiot obtained a third medal in 1911, then a second medal in 1913. As an animal artist, he also participated during the period between the two World Wars, like many of his confreres, in the production of war memorials. In 1930, he realized for the city of La Ferté-Alais, where his mother lived, "The Lion watching...

Bronze, Limited Edition 2 of 9 "Eclat de Pierre" by Nicola Godden is a captivating original figurative bronze sculpture that captivates viewers with its graceful elegance and dynami...

Jenő Kerényi (Hungarian, 1908-1975) The Lion Tamer, 1929 Bronze on two-tiered marble base Signed and dated on bronze base 15.5 x 6 x 6 inches Jenő Kerényi was a Hungarian sculptor. ...

This Sculpture is made by Dutch artist Antoinette Briet. Her forms always are an abstraction of movement in the world of animals. In this particular sculpture she shows here admirati...

This cast bronze sculpture by Steve Turner is the interplay of positive and negative space creating a trio of dynamic interaction. The bronze sculpture ...

This squirrel is made by Dutch Artist Frans van Straaten. Van Straaten should be called an artist of balance always searching for harmony between force and movement in combination with space. Because of the wide range in his art-education he has mastered the art of drawing, painting and sculpting technology. However, the classical plastic art of sculpture and modelling opens up the possibility for him to create his own language of sculpture in answer to his urge for art. Due to this style of sculpting, the preference for bronze is natural. After his study of sculpture at the Academy of Art in Rotterdam (1988), Frans van Straaten creates bronze sculptures in which he unites force and movement. Feeling and Emotion converted into Matter Sculpture is an experience of space combined with the challenge of the three-dimensional. The tension of space and movement are the themes, which Frans expresses in his sculptures. Summary it can be said that the power of life and being, the feeling and emotion by force and movement will be converted into matter. The experience of space is being expressed in the shapes and characters in each of Frans’ sculptures. His sculptures of bulls express explosive power while the horses find their strength in being elegant. Each sculpture recalls this way their own association and serves as a metaphor for a certain emotion. Feelings, which has inspired the artist for each sculpture. Powerful and Elegant Looking at the works of this artist, it becomes very clear that one of his most important sources is his background in art history. The Renaissance period as well as several Italian artists served as inspiration to Frans as a sculpture. For instance the expressions in Leonardo da Vinci’s artworks, and also Giovanni Bologna...