Beautiful bronzes seen in the round

Associated media

Victoria Keller enjoys getting up close to some stunning examples of the bronze-casters art, at New York’s Frick Collection

There is currently a delightful exhibition at the Frick Collection of 33 bronze statuettes and sculptures (and one relief) that all date from the 15th through to the early 18th centuries. In this period the statuette reached its highest stage of development in Europe and the collecting and giving of such small bronzes was one of the pastimes of the wealthy. The collection was made over a 20-year period by Janine and J. Tomilson Hill, who also collect post-war painting. The intimate nature of the Frick is so sympathetic to the display of such art and the installation itself is so enjoyable that this exhibition is a delight.

Henry Clay Frick scattered his own collection of early Italian bronzes throughout every room of his mansion, where they co-habit with the grand landscapes and calm formal portraits that were his preferred subjects in painting.  The Hills also show their small bronzes in their home but, instead of the Frick’s Constables, Holbeins and Gainsboroughs, the Hills hang paintings by artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon.  Mr Hill credits his youthful visits to the Frick, where he had an unobstructed view of the bronzes, with his early interest in the subject.   

Indeed, the lovely thing about this exhibition is that the sculptures are so visible.  Normally, such small sculptures are safely tucked into a glass vitrine, or on a plinth against a wall. In this exhibition it's possible to see each piece clearly from all sides.  Bronze can be  a subtle artform and getting close enough to see  light flickering off the  'skin' from different angles makes you admire how the sculptors breathed life into their subjects.

Each of the three rooms of the installation reflect an aspect of the Hills’ collection.  In one gallery, larger bronzes, such as Ferdinando Tacca's Ceres and Bacchus  and Giuseppe Piamontini's Prince Ferdinando di Cosimo III on Horseback, are juxtaposed with paintings by Cy Twombly and Ed Ruscha, also from the Hills’ collection.  It is a treat to stand behind Ceres and Bacchus, not just in front of them, and  to be able to see their arms sinuously intertwined as they stand shoulder to shoulder, gazing at each other affectionately as befits the goddess of the harvest and the lord of the vine.

Looking down the hallway and into this room, you see Piamontini's early 18th-century bronze prince on his rearing horse and in the background you see Ed Ruscha's canvas Seventeenth Century. This uses words as imagery, positively shouting:  Damsels! Plague! Melancholia! as it frames this virtuoso statuette, which you can circle round to admire the intricate detail of the prince and his horse.

Another gallery is devoted to the small statuette, from its classical revival in Renaissance Italy to its flowering in France under Louis XIV.  Andrea Briosco, known as Riccio, was celebrated in 16th-century Padua for his interpretation of an athlete, Strigil Bearer,  who carries a curved strigil (skin scraper).  The original sculpture, by the Greek sculptor Lysippus, was known to Ricccio only through ancient texts.  In reproduction, Hercules and Antaeus, attributed to the 15th-century Florentine Maso Finiguerra, looks as if it must be huge, yet the sculpture itself is barely ten inches (25.2 cm) tall.  It succeeds decisively as a miniature recreation of a monumental ancient Roman marble depicting the moment Hercules defeats Antaeus by hoisting him off the ground and breaking his back. The detail is quite incredible and indicates that its creator was trained as a goldsmith, as were many of the Renaissance masters of the small bronze.

In the same room are three lovely works by Giambologna, who died in Florence in 1608.  Given as gifts by Florentine Medici princes to rulers across Europe, Giambologna's statuettes influenced a generation of sculptors.  The personification of Astronomy stands in a ‘hipshot’ pose, leaning on a plinth and resting her foot above a celestial globe.  Her sinuous rotation invites you to admire her in the round.  Giambologna actually invented this type of composition, called a figura serpentinata, in which figures ‘twist like flames’ and are beautiful from any angle.  Sharing a plinth are Bull and Horse, in which Giambologna celebrates the vitality of the animals with their vibrant contours and form.

In the third, very small, room, religious sculptures that mostly hang on the wall are paired with Old Master and modern works of art.  The Florentine Antonio Susini cast his Cristo Morto (The Dead Christ on the Cross) after a model by Giambologna.  At the Frick the bronze, which is gilt with gold, hangs on a blue background on which it casts really fine shadows.  This is a gentle devotional image that strongly contrasts with Alessandro Algardi's Cristo Vivo (The Living Christ on the Cross), cast about 50 years later.  Algardi's twisted, billowing draperies echo the pain experienced by Christ on the cross and casts like this one, made about 1646, full of fervour, became very popular in Baroque Rome.  It's wonderfully juxtaposed with the glazed terracotta Crocifisso (Christ on the Cross) from the 1950s by Lucio Fontana.  Fontana's abstract crucifixion is a distillation of light flickering off a figure, but without the figure.

The beautifully illustrated book that accompanies the exhibition contains essays on two of the sculptors in the exhibition, while other essays are devoted to technical reports on selected bronzes, biographies of all the sculptors and detailed extended catalogue entries on each piece.  These latter contain much interesting and well-written information for the general reader. For example, the entry on the Algardi Cristo Vivo explains that the sculpture gives visual form to the Catholic Church's renewed emphasis in the 1640s on the Eucharist as the living body of Christ. 

I do think an opportunity was missed in not providing a  description of the intricate processes involved in creating these beautiful objects.  Many people don't know that the casting process is capable of producing multiples, and that these works are superb examples but often not the only ones.

While the exhibition itself is a perfectly fine introduction to the subject, the accompanying book is a scholarly publication which, although well written and with little jargon, makes no concessions to newcomers to the history and technical challenges of  Renaissance and Baroque bronzes.  It is clearly meant as a validation of the importance of the Hill Collection.

The accompanying book is  Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Hill Collection  by Patricia Wengraf, with contributions by Denise Allen, Claudia Kryza-Gersch, Dimitrios Zikos and Rupert Harris, published by Paul Holberton Publishing 2014. 384pp. 258 illus, $100.00 (hbk). ISBN 978 1 907372 63 6