The Story of Joseph after Lorenzo Ghiberti's “Gates of Paradise, " Florence
View Similar Items
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 2
Ferdinand BarbedienneThe Story of Joseph after Lorenzo Ghiberti's “Gates of Paradise, " Florence
About the Item
- Creator:Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810 - 1892, French)
- Dimensions:Height: 27.5 in (69.85 cm)Width: 27.5 in (69.85 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:Old Masters
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1026198492
About the Seller
5.0
Recognized Seller
These prestigious sellers are industry leaders and represent the highest echelon for item quality and design.
Established in 1997
1stDibs seller since 2012
17 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 11 hours
More From This SellerView All
- The Story of Joseph from the Second Baptistery Doors, Florence (“The Gates of PaBy Ferdinand BarbedienneLocated in New York, NYFerdinand Barbedienne (Saint-Martin-de-Fresnay 1810 – 1892 Paris) after Lorenzo Ghiberti (Florence, 1378 – 1455) Signed at the lower right of the principal relief: F. BARBEDIENNE Provenance: Private Collection, USA. Barbedienne’s “Gates of Paradise” reliefs are one of the triumphs of nineteenth-century bronze casting and patination. The nine panels that comprise our example are half-size reductions of the famous originals by Lorenzo Ghiberti, made for the Baptistery of Florence and now housed in the Museo del Opera del Duomo. Mounted in an impressive, mullioned frame surround, our work is an exceptional exemplar of the Renaissance Revival, the broadly influential style and movement that infused architecture, design, and artistic culture in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The central scene, The Story of Joseph, is perhaps the most celebrated of the entire series depicting as it does seven episodes from the Biblical narrative integrated into a single composition: Joseph cast by his brethren into the well, Joseph sold to the merchants, the merchants delivering Joseph to the pharaoh, Joseph interpreting the pharaoh’s dream, the pharaoh paying him honor, Jacob sending his sons to Egypt, and Joseph recognizes his brothers and returns home. The surrounding reliefs—two vertical figures in niches, two recumbent figures, and four portrait heads in roundels—are as well faithful reductions of Ghiberti’s original bronzes on other parts of the doors. The maker of these casts was the renowned 19th-century French fondeur Ferdinand Barbedienne. Gary Radke has recently written of this great enterprise: “The Parisian bronze caster Ferdinand Barbedienne began making half-sized copies of ancient and Renaissance sculpture in the 1830s. His firm benefitted enormously from the collaboration of Achille Collas, whom Meredith Shedd has shown was one of numerous pioneers in the mechanical reproduction of sculpture. Their competitors largely devoted themselves to reproducing relief sculpture, but Collas devised a process for creating fully three-dimensional copies. A tracing needle, powered by a treadle, moved over the surface of a full-sized plaster cast or bronze of the original and triggered a complementary action in a cutting stylus set over a soft plaster blank…He signed an exclusive contract with Barbedienne on November 29, 1838, and won medals for his inventions in 1839 and 1844. Barbedienne’s half-sized copies of the Gates of Paradise were famous not only for their fidelity to the original, but also for the way their gilding…suggested the glimmering surface that was hidden under centuries of dirt. Some critics even saw Collas’s and Barbedienne’s work as ‘philanthropic, an exemplary adaptation of industry to the requirements of art, the artist, the workers, and the public alike.’ At 25,000 francs, Collas’s and Barbedienne’s reduction of the Gates of Paradise was singularly more expensive than any other item for sale in their shop. All the reliefs, individual statuettes, and busts were cast separately and could be purchased either by the piece or as an ensemble. Fittingly, Barbedienne’s accomplishment earned him the Grand Prix at the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle, along with numerous other medals.” Three complete examples of the Barbedienne-Ghiberti doors are known. One, first installed in a chapel in the Villa Demidoff of San Donato near Pratolino, was later acquired by William Vanderbilt...Category
Late 19th Century Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsBronze
- The Three MagiLocated in New York, NYProvenance: 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...Category
Late 18th Century Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsAlabaster
- Head of a Young African ManLocated in New York, NYProvenance: Private Collection, Spain. This intriguing and enigmatic sculpture depicts the head of a young African man emerging from a circular opening ...Category
Early 1800s Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsTerracotta
- Portrait of Ni-PologLocated in New York, NYSigned, dated, and inscribed on the verso: Malvina Hoffman/ Den Pasar/ “Nipolog”-/ © 1932/ Bali Provenance: The artist; her estate. Literature: Mal...Category
1930s Realist Sculptures
MaterialsTerracotta
- Cuzco School Baptismal DishBy Spanish Colonial (Peruvian)Located in New York, NYProvenance: Manuel Ortíz de Zevallos y García, Peru; and by descent in the family to: Private Collection, New York. This impressive baptismal dish is an example of eighteenth-cent...Category
18th Century Old Masters Sculptures
MaterialsSilver
- Allegory of AbundanceLocated in New York, NYPainted in collaboration with Hendrick van Balen (Antwerp, 1575 – 1632). Provenance: Private Collection, Uruguay, since the 1930s. The eldest son of Jan Br...Category
17th Century Old Masters Paintings
MaterialsCopper
You May Also Like
- Winning the Race Galloping Horse and Rider in Bronze by Charles RumseyBy Charles Cary RumseyLocated in Brookville, NYRumsey’s specialties included equestrian sculptures – portraits of polo players and prize horses, as well as of cowboys, cattle and horses as metaphors. He worked principally in bron...Category
1910s American Impressionist Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsBronze
- Troublemaker, Bolting Horse without RiderLocated in Brookville, NYKathleen Friedenberg began her professional career as a veterinary surgeon in England, and came to the United States, on a Thouron scholarship, studying human and equine orthopaedics...Category
Early 2000s American Realist Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsBronze
- Sculpture of a Polo Player Harrison Tweed by Charles RumseyBy Charles Cary RumseyLocated in Brookville, NYPolo Pony and Rider Harrison Tweed . Charles Rumsey was an 8 goal polo player with Meadowbrook Polo Club on Long Island NY. He was an avid sportsman, equestrian and artist. His ab...Category
1910s Abstract Impressionist Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsBronze
- Rams Head Sculpture in Bronze by Charles RumseyBy Charles Cary RumseyLocated in Brookville, NYCharles Rumsey was an avid sportsman, horseman and a child prodigy in sculpting sent to Paris to study as a boy. His life of hunting fishing and ridin...Category
1910s American Realist Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsBronze
- The Old Virginian, Bronze of a Horse and Rider with Dogs by Charles RumseyBy Charles Cary RumseyLocated in Brookville, NYFrom the estate of the Artist Charles Cary Rumsey The Artist, Charles Rumsey, was a child prodigy sent to Paris as a young boy to study sculpture. He later was a world class sports...Category
1910s American Impressionist Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsBronze
- Dog Bronze Foxhound Sculpture by Charles RumseyBy Charles Cary RumseyLocated in Brookville, NYThis beautiful bronze of a Foxhound is a study for what was to be a pair of larger ones used as a pair of Andirons outside fireplace at Harriman House in NYC. The artist, Charles Ru...Category
1910s American Realist Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsBronze