Jane Rosen

SIENNA TURQUOISE BIRD

2019

This amusing naturalistic sculpture in silver-plated pewter was probably made in the 17th century by Georg Schweigger. Inspired by a model created by another Nuremberg sculptor, Peter Flötner, it bears witness to the persistence during the baroque era of the naturalistic taste that emerged in the Renaissance. Intended as an ornament for some Kunstkammer, or cabinet of curiosities, this sculpture was a great success, as can be seen from the presence of similar works in many European museums. 1. Georg Schweigger Georg Schweigger was a baroque sculptor and medal founder from Nuremberg, known mainly for his small-scale works in stone, carved wood and cast metal. His only large-scale work, the Neptune Fountain, has been in the Petershof Palace, the summer residence of the Tsars near St. Petersburg, since 1797. This monumental sculpture demonstrates his taste for the representation of movement, which we find in this small piece, inspired, as we shall see, by earlier models. 2. The success of a naturalistic theme As is often the case in the history of art, the source of the Dog scratching his ear theme probably comes from an engraving, and more precisely from one made in Strasbourg in 1480 or in Aschaffenburg in 1481 by the Master of the Housebook, an anonymous engraver working in southern Germany at the end of the 15th century. This engraving seems to have been Peter Flötner’s (1490 - 1546) source of inspiration. Peter Flötner was a sculptor and engraver who settled in Nuremberg in 1522. The Louvre Museum also has a gilded lead statuette dated between 1500 and 1515 (on deposit at the Musée de L'Œuvre in Strasbourg), which in turn is thought to have served as a model for other known statuettes. This model was later taken up by the Frenchman Barthélemy Prieur...

The Nautilus shell is an excellent example of mathematics inherent within lifeforms of the natural world. As Davies consistently uses the 'golden ratio' (1:1.618) to proportion his work, he thought it important to exemplify this in his subject matter. The Fibonacci sequence (where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers) and the logarithmic spiral are also inherent here. The bronze shell is mounted on a black granite base in a way that creates an optical illusion suggesting it is levitating above the base. This bronze Nautilus...

Paranthropus Robustus. An early man (hominid), one of the Australopiths from the subepochs of the early to middle Pleistocene period 2.6 - 1.5 million years ago. Some distinctive fea...

Jessica Carroll is an Italo- American sculptor (b. 1961), member of an artistic family (her father was a painter, her mother a writer and her grandfather directed the movie Totò, Pep...

Tan colored stone sculpture of a female figure with hands covering the sides of her head. The sculpture is signed by the artist and dated. Milton Goldin is known for producing abstra...

Naturalistic figure of a women with long hair and a long dress. The stone is a darker blue toned with natural veins and speckling. The figure is signed on the bottom of the dress.