Iran do Espirito Santo Sculptures

Szymon Oltarzewski was born in 1977 in Poland. Graduated in Environmental Engineering from the University of Opole, in 2003 he moved to Pietrasanta where he enrolled at the Academy o...

PORTRAIT HEAD OF A GIRL Rome, circa 2nd/3rd century A.D. Marble height 18.4 cm height 7 1/4 in Provenance: Sotheby's, London, May 23rd, 1988, no. 240,...

Three vertical links make up this piece that transmits firmness and solidity. The chain, always a symbol of unity, security and permanence, can also have a playful sense reflected in...

In a fast-paced world where we often get caught up in the rush, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters. Tempus serves as a reminder to live in the present and cherish each mom...

Life is often perceived as linear, a flat process with no return. Leben contradicts this belief and exposes the countless deviations that the path could take. This piece represents l...

ITALIAN MEDIEVAL CAPITAL Italy, 12th/13th Century marble 19 x 23 x 23 cm 7 1/2 x 9 x 9 in total height 31 cm (12 1/4 in)

ALINA plays with contrasts between order and disordered. Although its external form is ordered and symmetrical, the opposite happens inside: there are no patterns or logical order. I...

There is a certain beauty in imperfection. This is because there is nothing more human than flaws. Our life itself is chaotic and messy, just like this piece: it breaks and twists, c...

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...

Fantastic sculpture made entirely from nails. Presented on a solid slate base

This piece is inspired by the wings Icarus (Icaro) used to escape the Labyrinth of Knossos. Commissioned by King Minos, the Labyrinth was designed by the great architect Daedalus (Ic...

This piece plays with our perception, as well as challenges our definition of the chaotic and the perfect. When viewed from the front, the perceived silhouette is that of a perfect c...