Giacomo Zoffoli

Laocoön and his Sons, an exceptional bronze sculpture by Giacomo Zoffoli

circa 1775 - 1785

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...

This small landscape shows a hunting scene: two riders are chasing a stag with their dogs at the edge of a forest. Signed by Peter von Bemmel, it is typical of the production of this...

This painting has been the subject of a study by the art historian Fabrizio Dassie (available on request), confirming its inclusion in Jan van Bunnik’s corpus. In this painting, Ja...

These four plaques represent either domestic (a horse, two rams) or exotic animals (a rhinoceros and an elephant). Made on slate slabs cut to shape (a rectangle with concave angles), they are all based on the same narrative scheme: in a frame of Egyptian porphyry, an animal in multicoloured marble is represented advancing on a green marble floor, standing out against a black slate background. These plates were made in Italy, probably in Florence or in Rome, during the 18th century. We think that their primary purpose was to decorate the drawers of a cabinet. Like many other compositions in hard stone, these plaques were inspired by engravings that were a widespread decorative repertoire in the workshops. Three of the plaques presented here were directly inspired by works by Antonio Tempesta (1555 - 1630): the Rhinoceros, the Polish Horse...

We thank Mrs. Bożena Anna Kowalczyk who suggested the attribution to Francesco Galimberti based on a photograph of the artwork. This engaging drawing, finely executed in black and red chalks, depicts a Venetian diplomat in his 'new clothes...

We would like to thank Juliette Parmentier-Courreau of the Custodia Foundation for her welcome and support during the consultation of Glomy’s Journal des Ouvrages. This spectacularly large "feuille de desseins ajustés" commissioned by François Boucher from Jean-Baptiste Glomy is emblematic of the painter's art and mastery of rocaille. It is also fully representative of the taste of this period in the field of decorative arts. The largest of these three drawings, placed at the bottom of the composition, is particularly interesting: dating from around 1756, it constitutes a modello (apparently unpublished) for the frontispiece of the "Catalogue des tableaux de Monsieur de Julienne"), preserved in the Morgan Library in New York. 1. François Boucher, the master of French rocaille The extraordinary career of Francois Boucher was unmatched by his contemporaries in versatility, consistency and output. For many, particularly the writers and collectors who led the revival of interest in the French rococo during the last century, his sensuous beauties and plump cupids represent the French eighteenth century at its most typical. His facility with the brush, even when betraying the occasional superficiality of his art, enabled him to master every aspect of painting – history and mythology, portraiture, landscape, ordinary life and, as part of larger compositions, even still life. He had been trained as an engraver, and the skills of a draftsman, which he imbued in the studio of Jean-Francois Cars (1661 – 1738), stood him in good stead throughout his career; his delightful drawings are one of the most sought-after aspects of his oeuvre. As a student of Francois Lemoyne (1688 - 1737), he mastered the art of composition. The four years he spent in Italy, from 1727-1731, educated him in the works of the masters, classics and history, that his modest upbringing had denied him. On his return to Paris in 1734, he gained full membership of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture with his splendid Rinaldo and Armida (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Although, throughout his career, he occasionally painted subjects taken from the Bible, and would always have considered himself first as a history painter, his own repertoire of heroines, seductresses, flirtatious peasant girls and erotic beauties was better suited to a lighter, more decorative subject matter. His mastery of technique and composition enabled him to move from large scale tapestry...

Bronze statue of young goatherder by Oscar Gladenbeck. circa 1900. Signed "Oscar Gladenbeck Friedrichshagen".

Wonderful sculpture of a Twisting Male Torso in carved stone by contemporary New York City artist Martin Glick. Born in 1944, Martin Glick resides in Pomona, New York, just outside of New York City. He was taught by Conger Metcalf...

An early French wooden panel carved in bas relief, depicting a muscular male nude rider, accompanied by his dog. Sculpted in honey-coloured wood, this antique piece, dates from the ...

Terracotta statue representing a putto blowing with a cloth around his leg. It's inspired by the putto with dolphin by Andrea del Verrocchio, mad...

Piccola terracotta a soggetto mitologico firmata sul retro sulla base "Zambini", che per la grafia (in particolare la Z che ricorda una F) permette di identificare l'artista con Ferr...

Agustín Cárdenas Le Repos Passionné, 1989 Bronze. Ed. 7/7 60 x 145 x 51.5 cm 23.6 x 57 x 20.2 in. The artwork is accompanied by a certificate of aut...