AN ITALIAN BRONZE FIGURE OF MERCURY

Giambologna’s bronze figure of Mercury is perhaps his most recognisable creation. The idea appears to have originated in the early 1560s as a commission from Pier Donato Cesi, the Bishop of Narni, for a bronze figure of Mercury intended to adorn a column in the centre of a courtyard of the University of Bologna. The bronze was never erected at the university, and may have been re-directed as a diplomatic gift from the Medici to the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, whose sister Joanna was to marry Francesco de’ Medici (Avery, op. cit., pp. 126-127). The present model more closely follows a slight re-working of the theme which was executed by Giambologna and erected at the Villa Medici by 1580. That bronze is housed today in the Bargello, Florence (illustrated in ibid, pls. 14-15).
Although apparently cast by a different founder, it is interesting to note that a closely comparable bronze Mercury was commissioned by William, 6th Duke of Devonshire (1790-1858) from ‘Papi’, and can still be seen today at the Devonshire family seat Chatsworth. The Duke was a major patron and was actively commissioning art in the 1810s and 1820s. The practice of authorising moulds to be taken from celebrated sculptures in the Medici collections for important patrons was a long-standing one and a close comparison of the Devonshire and Londonderry bronzes suggests that they both come from moulds taken directly from Giambologna’s Bargello Mercury. The reference in the Outlay of Wynyard Mansion Estates (loc. cit.) to the purchase of a ‘Statue of Mercury’ for £17 probably refers to the present bronze, although it would still not be clear if the bronze was new at the time of purchase in the period 1820-1840, or might have been a pre-existing cast which was sourced for the Marquis of Londonderry by John Web.