Anthony Radcliffe
Published: 1994-10-26
Total Pages: 168
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The fruit of sixteen years of discriminating acquisition on the international art market, Robert Smith's is one of the most important collections of European bronzes in private hands today. Consisting of thirty pieces, all of the highest quality, it 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, including the superb Nessus and Deianira by his pupil Antonio Susini, and the Hercules and Lichas, a unique record in bronze of a lost silver group by Giambologna himself. Around this are assembled 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, and the Netherlands and France are well represented - the former by Willem van Tetrode (who briefly worked with Cellini in Florence) and Jan Gregor van der Schardt; the latter by Barthelemy Prieur, official sculptor to Henry IV.
