An Italian Glazed Terracotta Bust of Alexander the Great, Attributed to Girolamo della Robbia (1488-1566), Between 1526 and 1535

An Italian Glazed Terracotta Bust of Alexander the Great, Attributed to Girolamo della Robbia (1488-1566), Between 1526 and 1535

his head turned slightly to the right, with large curls falling about his forehead and ears, the irises painted blue with dark pupils, wearing classical armour with a lion's head and drapery falling over his right shoulder, upon later wooden socle. height 20 1/2 , width 16 1/4 , depth 10 1/4 in.; 52, 41.3, 26 cm. Estimate 100,000—120,000 USD

PROVENANCE: Chateau D'Assier, France, until late 18^th century

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES: P. Vitry and G. Brière, Documents de sculpture française, Paris, 1911, pl. 42, no. 6

G. Gentilini, I della Robbia: la scultura invetriata nel rinascimento, Florence, 1992, p. 367

P. Fogelman and P. Fusco, Italian and Spanish Sculpture: Catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection, Los Angeles, 2002, p. 27

NOTE: The present bust belongs to a group of busts attributed to Girolamo della Robbia first published by Paul Vitry and Gaston Brière in 1911. These are identified as part of a decorative scheme for the interior courtyard façade of the west wing at the Château d'Assier near Figeac in the south of France. The château was begun in 1524 and completed in 1535 for the Seigneur d'Assier, Jacques de Gourdon de Genouillac (called Galiot de Genouillac), who was appointed grand écuyer to Francis I in 1526.

The present bust has until now been considered lost, known to recent scholars only through a photograph reproduced in Vitry and Brière (op. cit., pl. 42, no. 6). Of the others identified there, there are two made of glazed terracotta; one is now in the Getty Museum, and the other is in the collection of Marvin and Jacqueline Kosofski in Los Angeles. Two related works, of reconstituted stone, are in the Louvre, and another comparable bust remains in situ in the courtyard of the Château d'Assier. A female bust identical to one of the Louvre examples, but also made of glazed terrocotta, is at the Yale University Art Gallery. With their curved bottoms, all seem to have been inset in circular medallions, and like the present piece, the Getty, Kosofski and Yale busts retain traces of purple-grey glaze which may indicate the color of those backings.

The youngest of the five active sons of Andrea della Robbia, Girolamo was heir to the famed sculptural tradition of his family. Their practice began a century earlier with Girolamo's great-uncle Luca della Robbia, whom Alberti placed among Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio and Ghiberti as one of the five great artists of the Florentine renaissance. The technique of glazed terracotta relief sculptures produced in the della Robbia workshops was conceived in imitation of ancient marbles, and the popularity of the style kept the family enormously active from the early 15^th century through Girolamo's lifetime.

The format of a portrait bust within a medallion, which frequently appears in the della Robbia oeuvre, originates with the portrait heads emerging from trefoil frames cornering the panels of Luca della Robbia's doors for the North Sacristy of the Florence Cathedral. As Fogelman notes, Giovanni della Robbia's portrait medallions for the cloister of the Certosa in Val d'Ema may have served as a direct inspiration for the present series. Together with his brother Luca the Younger, Girolamo brought contemporary innovations into his family's format in the 1520s. The expressive, elongated facial features in the present bust display Girolamo's interest in the early Florentine Mannerism developing in the work of such painters as Andrea del Sarto and Rosso Fiorentino. The Assier busts revert back to an almost all-white palette from the more colorful work of his elder brother Giovanni, and reflect a more classical taste.

Francis I was a great patron of the arts and persuaded many Florentine artists to leave Italy for his court: among them Andrea del Sarto, Benvenuto Cellini, and, perhaps most famously, Leonardo da Vinci. Girolamo's arrival in France was rather early in Francis's reign—he is recorded as receiving a royal stipend by 1518—and he brought with him an early inclination of the Mannerist style that was to dominate French and Italian art through the 16^th century. Galiot de Genouillac, a member of the Maison du Roi, must have found that the work of a della Robbia fulfilled a taste for the Italian Renaissance acquired during his military tours, while Girolamo's Mannerist departure from his family's tradition would have been quite progressive.

Fogelman suggests that the classical, military costumes of the busts in the Assier group may indicate that they were a series representing legendary heroes of antiquity, noting that the Kosofski bust and the present bust are consistent with traditional representations of Constantine and Alexander the Great, respectively (Fogelman, op. cit., p. 27).

The lot is sold with a thermoluminescence analysis report from Oxford Authentication Ltd. indicating that the sample was last fired between 200 and 400 years ago. As with the Getty example, a second TL test is in progress and is available upon request.

Sotheby's. Important Old Master Paintings, Including European Works of Art. 29 Jan 09. New York www.sothebys.com photo courtesy Sotheby's