Iran do Espirito Santo Art

This limited edition sculpture is made using the lost wax method of bronze casting. The patina is ferric nitrate, which gives it a reddish cast, and the artist has chosen to leave to...

Attr. Bertel Thorvalsden (1770-1844) WINGED CUPID, Italy, 19th Century Provenance: Private Collection, Vienna

Antique bronze sculpture of male nude reading a letter or proclamation. Marble base, 19th century. Unsigned.

Intricate, ethereal and highly textured, the abstract compositions of Japanese mosaic artist Toyoharu Kii reflect a sophisticated approach to the technica...

Intricate, ethereal and highly textured, the abstract compositions of Japanese mosaic artist Toyoharu Kii reflect a sophisticated approach to the technica...

Intricate, ethereal and highly textured, the abstract compositions of Japanese mosaic artist Toyoharu Kii reflect a sophisticated approach to the technical art of mosaic making. Classically trained in Florence, Italy, Kii creates his modern mosaics using traditional techniques and materials, including hand-cut Italian marble and Venetian smalti glass. Eschewing the figural in favor of the abstract, his mosaics rely on contrasts of pattern and form to convey complex themes and achieve visual harmony. Toyoharu Kii’s latest body of work “Geophytes” continues themes of rebirth and renewal. A reference to plants that regrow from hidden elements beneath the earth’s surface, the series celebrates the resilience of the natural world. Each mosaic is imagined as a landscape that documents a history of environmental damage due to human activity, and the subsequent return of nature as a restorative force. Through the juxtaposition of patterns and the interplay of order and disorder, Kii creates man-made “images of destruction” and finds hope in the future by “reconstructing nature.” In this mosaic entitled "Ghost (Big Wings)," Kii takes a more representational approach to his storytelling, creating figurative drawings out of thin lines of tesserae. The mosaic belongs to his “Ghost” triptych, wherein Kii uses “wings” to represent the presence of a heavenly being, the ghosts of past spirits or the presence of an angel or guardian. In “Ghost (Big Wings),” Kii mourns the extinction of many creatures due to environmental change and imagines their lonely spirits wandering the earth. Enveloping their silhouettes is “a bird with big wings,” writes Kii, depicted here within a dense mosaic of abstract patterns, a symbol for nature’s healing power. “The bird consoles...

Intricate, ethereal and highly textured, the abstract compositions of Japanese mosaic artist Toyoharu Kii reflect a sophisticated approach to the technical art of mosaic making. Clas...

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...

Transformation by British sculptor Ian Thomson. Thomson's travels have provided inspiration for his work. He holds degrees in Architecture and Philosophy &...

Very fine large Neoclassical white marble bust of Arianna wearing a diadem with grape vine in her hair after the antique in Vatican Museum . Ariadne, in Greek mythology (Latin Aria...

Earth by British sculptor Ian Thomson. Thomson's travels have provided inspiration for his work. He holds degrees in Architecture and Philosophy & describe...

"Entropy" Bronze sculpture 22" x 9" inch by Ibrahim Abd Elmalak Entropy, 2005 Bronze & Marble Signed & Dated Sculptures that mostly depict his ...