Art of the Renaissance Bronze, 1500-1650: The Robert H. Smith Collection

(Hardback, 2nd New edition)

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Description

This fully updated and extended edition is both a catalogue of one of the finest collections of Renaissance bronzes ever formed and an introduction to the sculptors, subjects, purposes and settings of the works. The collection embraces the Renaissance in Italy and northern Europe in such a way that its components complement and enhance the appreciation of each other. Central to the collection is a group of thirteen pieces that illustrate the legacy of Giambologna in Florence. Also assembled are pieces by independent contemporaries: Alessandro Vittoria and Francesco Segala in the Veneto, and the younger Genoese-born Niccolo Roccatagliata, whose surviving work is of the utmost rarity. A selection of fine early North Italian bronzes serves as an introduction to the collection; the Netherlands and France are also well represented. Many pieces have distinguished provenances, and all have been exhaustively researched. The book comprises not just a catalogue but an important and original contribution to scholarship in its own right. This new and extended version of the first edition retains the entries written by Anthony Radcliffe with a few additions or corrections, and an entry that he drafted on the miniature cannon signed by Orazio Antonio Alberghetti has also been incorporated. New entries have been supplied by Marietta Cambareri, Curator of Sculpture in the Arts of Europe section of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, by Fabio Barry, Mellon intern for 2004 in the Department of Sculpture at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., and by Nicholas Penny.

Reviews

Antiques Magazine, 11th June 2005: 'Those who own the first edition will be itching to get their hands on this update.' 'This far reaching and comprehensive survey.' 'Perhaps the highpoint for catalogues of private collections of paintings and works of art was reached in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century... although a very different sort of book, this new catalogue... sits firmly within that tradition.' - Burlington Magazine

Author Bio

Anthony Radcliffe was Keeper of Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, from 1979-89, and is now Keeper Emeritus. Nicholas Penny is Senior Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.