Live Auction 6451Works of Art from the Collection of the late Lord Forte & An Interior by Francoise de Pfyffer
AN ITALIAN ROYAL IVORY AND GILT-BRONZE RELIEF DEPICTING THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST
Lot 16

AN ITALIAN ROYAL IVORY AND GILT-BRONZE RELIEF DEPICTING THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST

LATE 17TH/18TH CENTURY

Closed12 July 2012

Price Realised

GBP 31,250

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AN ITALIAN ROYAL IVORY AND GILT-BRONZE RELIEF DEPICTING THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST
LATE 17TH/18TH CENTURY
St John the Baptist with a brass processional cross; both figures with brass halos; in an ebonised wood, fluorspar and gilt-bronze mounted frame; the reverse inscribed '1280', '328.' and further indecipherable inscriptions also with a printed paper label inscribed 'INVENTARIO/1874/...C Napal.../No. 170 M'; repaired break to St John's neck, alterations to the frame
10 x 8.5 in. (25.5 x 21.5 cm.); 18.5 x 17 in. (47 x 43 cm.) the frame

Possibly the Palazzo Reale, Naples.
The collections of the Italian Royal Family.
Umberto II of Italy by whom given to Lord Forte.

Specialist note

The overall disposition of the two ivory figures in this relief, as well as the treatment of the drapery with its thick folds, suggests that the author was familiar with Alessandro Algardi's treatment of the same subject. Algardi, who, along with Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francois Duquesnoy was one of the most important sculptors of baroque Rome, modelled a group of the Baptism of Christ in terracotta which is now in the Vatican Library. It was subsequently elaborated upon and cast in bronze; an example of one such cast was sold Christie's London, 2 June 1964, lot 66 and is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. For a discussion of the composition by Algardi see J. Montagu, Alessandro Algardi, New Haven and London, 1985, II, pp. 311-315, figs 66-67 .

Whilst the inventory to which the inscription to the reverse of the present lot relates has not been traced it is probable it relates to an inventory of the contents of Palazzo Reale, Naples which was one of Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy's official residences following the unification of Italy in 1861.