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Mercury taking Flight | |
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Click on image(s) for larger view | |
Title/s | Mercury taking Flight |
Maker/s | Rustici, Giovanni Francesco (sculptor) [ULAN info: Italian artist, 1474-1554] |
Collection | |
Category |
sculpture |
Name |
figure |
School/Style | |
Description | Copper alloy, probably bronze, cast, and chased, mounted later on breccia ball and wooden socle. Copper alloy, probably bronze, cast, and chased, mounted later on breccia ball and wooden socle. Mercury stands balanced on his right leg on a green and red breccia marble ball. His left leg is thrust out stiffly behind him. His left hand rests on his hip, and his right arm is raised, the hand shaped to grasp a slim rod held roughly horizontally. His head is thrust sharply back, the face turned upwards. His lips are pursed, and his mouth shaped as a nozzle pierced in the centre with a round hole (diam 6mm). In the centre of the figure's back is a large irregular oval aperture (7.8 x 3.7 cm) cast with a rebate designed to receive a closely fitted cover. |
Production Place | Florence (place) Tuscany (region) Italy (country) Italian (nationality) |
Technique Description | copper alloy, probably bronze, cast, and chased, mounted later on breccia ball and wooden socle. |
Dimensions |
height: (figure): 47.9
cm |
Period | early 16th Century |
Date | circa 1515 |
Provenance | bequeathed: Sherek, Pamela 1995 (Filtered for: Applied Arts collection) Commissioned in 1515 by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, Palazzo Medici, Florence; Sir Francis Cook Bt, Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey (d.1901); 1901, by inheritance, Wyndham Francis Cook, London (where catalogued by Arthur Banks Skinner); 1905 by inheritance, Humphrey Wyndham Cook, London; His sale, Christie's, London, 8 July 1925, lot 242, bt Henry Harris, London; His sale, Sotheby's, London, 24 October 1950, The Henry Harris Collection, Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Bronzes, Sculpture, Paintings and works of Art of the Italian Renaissance, p. 20, lot 106, illustrated as frontispiece; bt Sylvia Adams for Lt. Col. the Hon. M.T. Boscawen, D.S.O., M.C.; Bequeathed by the Hon. Mrs Pamela Sherek, from the collection of the late Lt. Col. the Hon. M.T. Boscawen, D.S.O., M.C. in his memory.Bequeathed by the Hon. Mrs Pamela Sherek, from the collection of the late Lt Col. the Hon. M.T. Boscawen, DSO, MC, in his memory. |
Documentation |
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Other Notes | Mercury was the son of Jupiter and Maia. He was one of the twelve Olympian gods, and often acted as messenger to the other gods. |
Accession Number | M.2-1997 (Applied Arts) |
Related Resources | |
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