18th Century and Earlier Figurative Sculptures

"Sheath In Sea Green And Red Marble From Caunes-minervois Nineteenth" Marble green sea for the central part and surrounded by a red of Caunes-Minervois XIXè. Provenance:GalerieParisi...

BUST In Marble Probably From Carrara Representing King Henry IV Late 18th Century" Marble BUST probably from Carrara representing King Henry IV with a laurel wreath. late 18th centur...

Questa statua in terracotta in eccellente stato conservativo considerata l'età e la fragilità del materiale, raffigura un putto nell'atto di soffiare, colto in una posa di intenso p...

The legendary Greek god Perseus is the subject of this elegant half-bust by Ubaldo Gandolfi, a major painter and sculptor from Bologna. The son of Zeus and Danaë, Perseus was the le...

Large Virgin and Child in carved wood, carved back. Sitting on a throne bench, Mary carries Christ seated on her left knee. The Virgin has a face with stylized features with semicircular eyebrow arches, almond-shaped eyes with protruding eyeballs. Marie is wearing a belted dress with a simple neckline and a coat with a flap that goes back to the front. Tiny traces of polychromy. Romanesque influences are still present. With her protruding eyes, she can also be compared to the statuary of Lake Constance. Our Virgin, rare for its size, nevertheless presents strong analogies with the Italian Sedes Sapientiae...

Catalan School of the 13th century. Bishop statue in polychrome wood. Large polychrome wooden statue representing a holy bishop carrying a crosier and ma...

Relief with saint Georges France, 15th Century limestone 26 x 20 cm (10 1/4 x 7 3/4 in) without base

16th Century Venetian bronze sculpture of a Young Man in Armour attributed to the Florentine artist Andrea di Alessandri, called Il Bresciano (Fl...

A pair of carved oak angels, circa 1700, with a lovely warm patina and faint traces of polychrome to the face and gilding to the body. The angels are both kn...

A fine antique bronze figural group of Bacchantes by Claude Michel (Clodion) ( 1738– 1814). The bronze depicts a pair of bacchantes, the female followers of Bacchus the Roman god of ...

This remarkably fluid terracotta bozetto was made in preparation for Pietro Pacilli’s most important public commission, a large-scale marble statue of San Camillo de Lellis for the nave of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Expressively modelled, this terracotta sculpture is a rare and significant work made by a major Roman sculptor at a transformative moment of European sculpture. Pacilli began his working life on the great Baroque decorative projects initiated in the seventeenth century, but he found success as a restorer of ancient sculpture working to finish antiquities for a tourist market, becoming an important figure in the emergence of an archaeologically minded Neoclassicism. Pacilli trained Vincenzo Pacetti and provided important decorative work for the Museo Pio-Clementino, at the same time he is recorded restoring some of the most celebrated antiquities excavated and exported during the period. Pacilli was born into a family of Roman craftsmen, his father Carlo was a wood carver, and Pacilli is recorded working with him on the Corsini Chapel in San Giovanni Laternao as early as 1735. In 1738 his terracotta model of Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife won the first prize in the second class of the sculpture concorso at the Accademia di San Luca, this is particularly notable as Bartolomeo Cavaceppi came third. He worked as a carver and stuccoist completing works for the churches of San Marco and SS. Trinita dei Domeniciani Spagnoli. Pacilli operated as a sculptor and restorer of antiquities from his studio at the top of the Spanish Steps, close to Santa Trinita dei Monti, where he is listed as a potential vendor to the Museo Pio-Clementino in 1770. In 1763 Pacilli completed a silver figure of San Venanzio for the treasury of San Venanzio. He is recorded as Pacetti’s first master and it was evidently through Pacilli that he began to acquire his facility as a restorer of ancient sculpture. Pacilli, at his studio ‘poco prima dell’Arco della Regina alla Trinita dei Monti,’ exercised, what the nineteenth-century scholar, Adolf Michaelis called ‘rejuvenating arts’ on several important pieces of classical sculpture, including in 1760 the group of a Satyr with a Flute for the natural brother of George III, General Wallmoden, Hanovarian minister at Vienna. In 1765, Dallaway and Michaelis record that Pacilli was responsible for the restorations, including the addition of a new head, to the Barberini Venus which he had acquired from Gavin Hamilton. The Venus was then sold to Thomas Jenkins, who in turn passed it on to William Weddell at Newby Hall. In 1767 Pacilli exported a series of ancient busts ‘al naturale’ including portraits of Antinous, Julius Ceaser and Marus Aurelius, also a statue of a Muse and a Venus. As early as 1756 Pacilli seems to have been operating as an antiquarian, helping to disperse the collection of the Villa Borrioni. Pacilli supplied sculpture to notable British collectors, including Charles Townley, who on his first trip to Italy purchased the Palazzo Giustiniani statue of Hecate from Pacilli. Pacilli was involved with the Museo Pio Clementino from its conception, supplying busts of Julius Ceaser and a Roman Woman as well as completing stucco putti surmounting the arms of Pope Bendedict XIV to signal the entrance to the new Museo Critiano. In 1750 Il Diario Ordinario del Chracas announced that Pacilli had begun work on a sculpture of San Camillo de Lellis for St Peter’s. Camillo de Lellis founded his congregation, the Camillians, with their distinctive red felt crosses stitched on black habits in 1591. Having served as a soldier in the Venetian army, Camillo de Lellis became a novitiate of the Capuchin friars, he moved to Rome and established a religious community for the purpose of caring for the sick. In 1586 Pope Sixtus V formerly recognised the Camillians and assigned them to the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Rome. Camillo de Lellis died in 1614 and was entombed at Santa Maria Maddalena, he was canonised by Benedict XIV on June 26, 1746. It was an occasion that prompted the Camillians to make a number of significant artistic commissions, including two canvases by Pierre Subleyras showing episodes from San Camillo’s life which they presented to Benedict XIV. In 1750 Pacilli was commissioned to fill one of the large niches on the north wall of the nave with a sculpture of San Camillo. The present terracotta bozetto presumably had two important functions, to enable Pacilli to work out his ideas for the finished sculpture and at the same time to show his design to the various commissioning bodies. In this case it would have been Cardinal Alessandro Albani and Monsignor Giovan Francesco Olivieri, the ‘economo’ or treasurer of the fabric of St Peter’s. Previously unrecorded, this terracotta relates to a smaller, less finished model which has recently been identified as being Pacilli’s first idea for his statue of San Camillo. Preserved in Palazzo Venezia, in Rome, the terracotta shows San Camillo with his left hand clutching his vestments to his breast; the pose and action more deliberate and contained than the finished sculpture. In producing the present terracotta Pacilli has expanded and energised the figure. San Camillo is shown with his left hand extended, his head turned to the right, apparently in an attempt to look east down the nave of St Peter’s. The model shows Pacilli experimenting with San Camillo’s costume; prominently on his breast is the red cross of his order, whilst a sense of animation is injected into the figure through the billowing cloak which is pulled across the saint’s projecting right leg. The power of the restrained, axial contrapposto of bent right leg and outstretched left arm, is diminished in the final sculpture where a baroque fussiness is introduced to the drapery. What Pacilli’s terracotta demonstrates, is that he conceived the figure of San Camillo very much in line with the immediate tradition of depicting single figures in St Peter’s; the rhetorical gesture of dynamic saint, arm outstretched, book in hand, head pointed upwards was perhaps borrowed from Camillo Rusconi’s 1733 sculpture of St. Ignatius...

Hand Carved Fruit Wood Length: 16 inches (40.5 inches) A striking, richly hand carved frame in high relief. It shows a rich decor of natural organic forms alongside a collection of ...

ROMAN RED JASPER APPLIQUE OF TRAGIC ACTOR Rome, 1st Century A.D. 5.5 x 4.2 cm the mask 2 1/4 x 1 3/4 in Provenance Penicuik House, Midlothian, acquired by either Sir John Clerk, 2nd...

Provenance: Private Collection, Spain. Known as Peruvian alabaster for its translucency and workability, Piedra de Huamanga is a highly prized material from the province of Ayacucho in Peru. In the 17th and 18th centuries, local craftsman in the town of Huamanga began to specialize in the production of small-scale, polychrome religious sculptures made from this distinctive stone. Huamanga sculptures are among the most accomplished examples of carving from the Spanish Americas, where polychrome wood sculpture was a far more common sculptural medium. These works, which were created as independent sculptures or as sculptural groups—such as our three Magi—were intended for ecclesiastical as well as domestics settings. Our three figures likely formed part of a larger Nativity group—a New World variant of the tradition of the Neapolitan Crèche...

One flame candle holder putto made of gilded wood. Those kind of objects were present in churches or noble villas, specially during the Baroque times. The base is not coeval.

A late 17th c. Italian carved figure of Mermaid, Circle of Filippo Parodi (Genoa, 1630 – July 22, 1702) Dimensions: h. 29.13 in, w. 30.31 in, p. 18.9 in (at the base) Magnificent Italian Baroque sculpture depicting a mermaid seated on the rock. All the virtuosity of the sculptor unfolds in this carved group. The fantastic creature is featured seated, the upper part of the body darting forward, the head looking upwards. Sophisticated hairstyle with rows of pearls intertwined in her hair, her loose locks fly in the wind and bring movement to the whole sculpture. The wide-open eyes with hollowed-out pupils make it possible to follow the mermaid's gaze, towards the sky. The half-open mouth further magnifies this bewitching and seductive attitude. Its long double tail ending in fins wraps on either side of a rocky mound strewn with objects evoking the underwater world: seashells and shells, branches of coral. The ornamental richness combined with the great care taken in its execution make it a work in which the splendor of Italian Baroque art unfolds in such characteristic scenic movement. The composition betrays a strong influence from Filippo Parodi, the leader of Genoese Baroque sculpture, and points to an artist from his circle. Our sculpture was probably part of a decorative monumental palace. The iconographic theme evoking the marine world finds its application in the numerous fountains and artificial grottos, designed in Italian palaces at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. Giacomo Filippo Parodi (Genoa 1630 – July 22, 1702) was an Italian Baroque sculptor of the Genoese school, who introduced Bernini's aesthetic to Genoa. In his youth fathers a first apprenticeship with a carpenter, he went to Rome where he became a pupil of Bernini. He had the opportunity to admire in person the works and style of the French sculptor Pierre Puget...

PROVENANCE Louis de Clercq (1836-1901), Paris Nicolas Koutoulakis (1910-1996), Paris and Geneva; thence by descent to the present owner LITERATURE A. de Rid...

Beautiful linden wood carving depicting a Pieta. France, Burgundian-Flemish current, late 15th to early 16th century. This theme is not found in the Bible but is derived from apocr...

PROVENANCE Herbert A. Cahn (1915-2002), Kunst der Antike, Basel, 1988 Private Collection, Paris

In celebration of the Year of the Rabbit, Hunt Slonem’s iconic muse is revisited in timeless powder-coated aluminum. Each edition is signed, numbered, and comes with a certificate of...

Molded terracotta male bust from the Neoclassical period, Italy, second half of the 18th century. AD monogram on the shoulder. The bust, entirely hand-molded, is based on ancient ...

(MADE TO ORDER) (Sabbath, Kiddush, Unique, Gold Luster) *Lead Time may vary between 1-3 weeks Melanie Sherman "Just A Little Tipsy" Year: 2021 Porcelain, Glaze, ChinaPaint, 24k Germ...

Evocative and rare 17th-century carved marble skull from Lombardy, Italy. The work bears an engraved inscription on the back that reads "Carestia grandissima II2 LVIO 1630," a clear ...

16th-century Florentine sculptor, greyhound in pietra serena. This fascinating sculpture, which has come down to us in fragmentary form, depicts a dog, an elegant greyhound crouching...

(MADE TO ORDER) (Sabbath, Kiddush, Unique, Gold Luster) *Lead Time may vary between 1-3 weeks Melanie Sherman "Just A Little Tipsy" Year: 2021 Porcelain, Glaze, ChinaPaint, 24k Germ...

Pair of early 17th-century medallion profiles in antique yellow marble and onyx Pair of medallions depicting Agrippina and Faustina, Rome, 17th century. Ra...

Rare, Late Roman Empire (3rd to 5th centuries, C.E.), solid marble bust of a young man. Beautiful patina. Mounted on a later, Carrara marble base.

MUSEUM PAIR FLYING ANGELS Brabant/Brussels Around 1500 Oak wood, full round carved Height 40/38 cm These two figures are a pair of flying angels mad...

Resting on a circular Egyptian porphyry base, this fascinating bronze figure of a young cherub is a striking example of the Venetian workmanship of the 16th Century. With the head tu...

(MADE TO ORDER) (Sabbath, Kiddush, Unique, Gold Luster) *Lead Time may vary between 1-3 weeks Melanie Sherman "Just A Little Tipsy" Year: 2021 Porcelain, Glaze, ChinaPaint, 24k Germ...

LATE GOTIC RELIEF “Adoration of the Magi Lower Rhine Around 1500 Oak wood, plastically carved Original, polychrome version Height 51 cm, widt...

CITES Documentation: IT/CE/2023/MI/00454 Exceptional composition with ivory microsculptures and landscape made of semi-precious stones, shells, and small corals in coeval carved and...

St. Joseph with Child in Terracotta beautiful example of Bolognese plastic from the 1700s, circle of Angelo Gabriello Piò (Bologna 1690 - 1770). Modeled as a full-length figure, th...

English Delftware blue and white plate, painted with a flower and bird design Diameter: 8 3/4 inches (22.25 cm) Delftware is also known as Delft Blue, was originally a general term ...

Hand-carved and painted, polychrome, Roman Santos figure in mid-stride. The figure wears stylized, flowing robes and stands atop a period base.

Rare anatomical head made of stucco and wax, of 18th-century German workmanship. Fascinating study model used in academia at the time, a fascinating piece of scientific art. The piec...

Fascinating limestone gargouille (or gargoyle) from the region of Avignon, France, dating from the 14th century. A rare and striking hand-carved piece that perfectly embodies the med...

Pilgrim or saint Jacques figure in sculpted and polychromed limestone. He holds a calabash in his left hand. He probably held the pilgrim's staff in his missing right hand. Very beau...

Fine 16th-century polychrome wax sculpture depicting Penitent Saint Jerome, one of the most evocative subjects in the Christian tradition. The work, created with extraordinary skill,...

PAIR OF ROMANESQUE MARBLE COLUMNS Italy, 13th/14th Century marble 86 x 16 x 13 cm 33 3/4 x 6 1/4 x 5 in

First half of the 18th century, Castelli Manufacture Landscape with architecture and figures Majolica, 16.5 x 21 cm The item is in good condition

Fascinating limestone gargouille (or gargoyle) from the region of Avignon, France, dating from the 14th century. A rare and striking hand-carved piece that perfectly embodies the med...

Sensitively carved, solid marble bust of a young boy mounted on a custom, Lucite base. Carved fully in the round, though originally the figure was pa...

Polychrome wax relief on chalkboard, 20 x 15 cm; with ebony and tortoiseshell frame, 28 x 23 cm The scene depicts Mary Magdalene in the center, seated on a rock with a handkerchief i...

Buddhist Monk Antique Asian Wood Carving 18Th Century or earlier possibly Japanese wood sculpture of a Buddhist Monk resting on lotus blossom on newer...

Large romanesque statue of Saint Lucy of Syracuse is dated from the 12th century. The saint is represented veiled and diademed, she wears a long dress, with an important tie. Stone s...

Pair of Angels, Tuscan Sculptures with Cornucopias from the 1600s hand-carved from stone pine wood, lacquered and gilded from Central Italy, from a private villa in Siena; they are...

Small marble head representing a bearded man in profile, an apostle or a prophet. This sculpture comes from the Joseph Altounian collection dispersed...

Nok culture Sitting 500 B.C. - 200 A.D. Terracotta Height 60 cm TL expert opinion of the University of Vienna Prof. Dr. Rudolf Erlach Provenance: Private collection Nice

Large Saint Sebastian finely carved in alabaster. The saint is attached to a column surmounted by a capital, beautiful soft features and superb hair wi...

Pair of sculptures depicting two winged angels in carved wood Tuscany, late 17th century Carved, gilded and polychrome wood Dimensions: Height 64 cm - ...

An evocative, 14th century, carved wood statue of a seated Mary with the Christ child in her lap. The piece with a beautiful patina featuring polychrome paint traces. Now mounted on ...

St. Jerome 347 Stridon, Croatia - 420 Bethlehem Around 1500/20 Limestone Remains of the original polychromy Height 45 cm The man with the holy name! 347 Stridon, Croation – 420 Be...

Antique carving of a saint or martyr. 17th century Flemish hardwood carving. Wonderful wear and rich color.

A pair of rare, early 1700’s, Roman, beautifully hand–carved, solid Carrara marble cherubim singing in adoration. Each with feather embellished robe fragments. Both mounted on custo...

Large catalan Virgin of the Annunciation in polychrome wood. Our Virgin is represented in the phase of the Conturbatio, Mary expresses her amazement a...

Exquisite Pair of Neoclassical bronze Bacchus and Bacchante figures cast in a dark patinated bronze. The pair rest on on white marble bases set with relief cast gilt plaques. 18th C...

This 17th-century bronze sculpture, likely hailing from southern Germany, depicts a scene of life-and-death struggle in nature — a hapless hare caught in the claws of a mighty panthe...

An iconic, hand carved, gessoed, painted, and parcel-gilt, Italian polychrome sculpture of tousle curled angel in windswept drapery. Beautiful expression and patina. Now mounted on a...

In celebration of the Year of the Rabbit, Hunt Slonem’s iconic muse is revisited in timeless powder-coated aluminum. Each edition is signed, numbered, and comes with a certificate of...