Monday 28 August 2017

Soane Museum 9 - Plaster Bust of Shakespeare



Soane Museum. 9 -

A Plaster Bust of Shakespeare.

This page was updated on the 17 November 2017.

No size given, but presumably the same size as the Garrick Club bust by Shout illustrated below.

See - http://collections.soane.org/object-sc68

For my previous post on the Shakespeare busts see -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-bust-of-shakespeare-in-royal.html


















This is a version of the bust of the plaster bust by John Cheere.
see the Wedgwood bust illustrated below.




I have written at some length on the various busts of Shakespeare.

see - https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-bust-of-shakespeare-in-royal.html

and further posts on

https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/shakespeare.html

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William Shakespeare.

Plaster Bust.

signed Shout.

Height 55 cms.

Photograph Garrick Club Website,

They say c. 1806.

Presented to the Garrick Club by Thomas F. Savany, 1834, or George Raymond, 1835, or John Poole, 1836.





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William Shakespeare.

Plaster Bust.

Piertro Sarti.

Athenaeum Club.

Purchased from Sarti 1830.

This bust appears to have been either a cast taken from the Shout bust or using the Shout Moulds

for more detail see my post.

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-bust-of-shakespeare-in-royal.html

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William Shakespeare.

Marble Bust.

Royal Collection.





The socle with the inscribed collar is probably a replacement.

There is no provenance for this bust prior to 1806.

Although the Royal Collection suggest that it is by Cheere - I would suggest that it was possibly sculpted in the Shout workshop in Holborn.

For much more on the Shout manufactory see my previous post.


http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/two-mysterious-plaster-busts-probably.html


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Photograph in the Royal Library, St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle in 1944.

https://www.rct.uk/sites/default/files/collection-online/8/b/1017271-1614872271.jpg

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The dealer Philip Mould has another version of this bust (below).




William Shakespeare.

Marble.

Height 52 cms including the socle

Again I would suggest that the Shout workshop is possibly the source  - the detail of the dress is very similar -

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William Shakespeare.

Marble Bust.

Peter Scheemakers.

Trinity College Library. Dublin.



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Shakespeare.

12.75 ins.

After The bust by Scheemakers at Trinity College, Dublin.

Wedgwood.

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Another version of Wedgwood's bust of Shakespeare.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

24.4 cms.

They say after a cast bought from John Cheere invoiced February, 1774.


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William Shakespeare engraved by Hubert Gravelot.


National Gallery of Scotland.

Soane Museum 8 - Plaster bust of Christopher Wren and the marble bust in The Ashmolean Museum



Soane Museum 8 - 
Some notes on
Sir Christopher Wren F.R.S. (1632 - 1723)
Plaster bust.
late 18th /Early 19th Century.
After the original by Edward Pearce.
and 
Sir Christopher Wren
The Marble Bust 
by Edward Pearce
Ashmolean Museum Oxford




















Christopher Wren 
Plaster


Bust

Low resolution photograph of the plaster bust of Christopher Wren from The St Paul's Cathedral website
Sizes - Height 76 x Width 61  x Depth 29 cms .


Another view of the St Paul's bust of Christopher Wren.

The form of the socle woul;d suggest that it was manufactured by the same caster as the Soane bust.

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 Sir Christopher Wren (1632 - 1723).
Marble Bust 
Edward Pierce
Ashmolean Museum Oxford





Page from Catalogue of the Portraits ... University Colleges... Oxford, Poole







































Sir Christopher Wren FRS
Edward Pearce (1635 - 95).
Height 66.1 cms.

Presented by Christopher Wren (his son) to the University of Oxford in 1737.
Transferred to the Ashmolean Museum in 1916.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Photographed by the author.

Pearce would have known Wren intimately. He joined the St Paul's Office as a Master Mason under Wren in 1678 and left in 1690.
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Sir Christopher Wren FRS
after Sir Godfrey Kneller

St Paul's Cathedral.




There is another version in the National Portrait Gallery.
They say by Kneller

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Christopher Wren
Klosterman (1660 - 1711).
143 x 121 cms
Originally framed together as a double portrait with his father Christopher Wren DD and later separated ( the portrait of Wren senior now missing).. Donated to the Royal Society in 1750 by Stephen Wren gandson of Sir Christopher

Royal Society

see - http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/67/2/173.



Sir Christopher Wren, by David Le Marchand, circa 1720 - NPG 4500 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

Sir Christopher Wren
David le Marchand
Ivory Relief
127 x 92 mm
c. 1720
Purchased 1966.
Provenance a distant relation of the sitter

National Portrait Gallery

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Sir Christopher Wren FRS
Wedgwood Jasparware
12.4 x 9.8 cms
Late 18th Century

After the Ivory relief by le Marchand in the NPG
Metropolitan Museum, New York.




Sir Christopher Wren FRS

Wedgwood Jasparware relief in gilt Metal Frame
Royal Collection

Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017


Portrait of Sir Christopher Wren, half length, in profile to the left, wearing wig and cloak; in octagonal frame on pedestal with arms; illustration to Christopher Wren (i.e. his grandson), 'Parentalia' (1750)  Engraving


Sir Christopher Wren FRS
Engraved from a bust by Coignard
Engraving from Parentalia by Christopher Wren Junior.

c. 1750

see - http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?record=O4495&_IXlink=y
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Sir Christopher Wren
Arttributed to David le Marchand.
Ivory Relief
I think the monogram might be spurious. This relief has none of the quality of the relief at the NPG
British Museum




Christopher Wren
 after Godfrey Kneller
Mezzotint
Engraved and Published by J Smith
1711

Image from The Victoria and Albert Museum

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Sir  Christopher Wren FRS.
Boxwood Relief

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Bronze Medallion
Gotlieb Daniel Gaab (1714 - 84).
two medallions were exhibited at the Free Society, 5 King Street, Seven Dials, Covent Garden in 1783

Probably made to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the death of Wren

Wednesday 23 August 2017

Soane Museum 7 - Statuette of Michelangelo by Flaxman and the busts of Michelangelo by Rysbrack

 Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475 - 1564).
 A Plaster Statuette
Paired with a Statuette of Raphael.
by John Flaxman (1754 - 1826).
Soane Museum.
and the Busts of Michelangelo by Michael Rysbrack
after Daniele da Volterra.
some notes -
Soane Museum statuettes of Michaelangelo and Raphael.
A pair of these figures were made by Flaxman for the painter Sir Thomas Lawrence but it is not known which pair. Besides those illustrated here there is a pair at the Royal Academy and there was also a pair at University College (destroyed).
From January 1837 Maria Denman the sister in law of Flaxman negotiated the acquisition with the Trustees of Sir John Soane. They were at last sent to the museum on 6th December 1838.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Plaster Statuette
John Flaxman.
Soane Museum
Raphael
Plaster Statuette
John Flaxman
Height 26 inches
Soane Museum
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Michelangelo
John Flaxman
Plaster Statuette
26.8 inches
Acquired 1909

British Museum
Sir Thomas Lawrence in his sitting room
note the two plaster figures either side of the Laocoon.
331 x 429 mm
1830
British Museum
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Michelangelo
Plaster Bust
RIBA
This bust along with a marble bust of Sir Christopher Wren and a Marble bust of Inigo Jones were presented to the RIBA in 1835 by HE Kendall.
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The Busts of Michaelangelo by and after Michael Rysbrack
A Plaster bust of Michelangelo
Paired with a bust of Palladio
Se my previous post
Life Size
Private Collection
























Michelangelo
Plaster bust paired with a bust of Palladio (see below).
Life Size
Superb condition - minor restoration on the socle.

After Michael Rysbrack

George Vertue mentions a bust of Michelangelo in the studio of Rysbrack sometime before 1732 
see Walpole Soc. Journal.XXII Vertue III. p.57.




I am very grateful to the owner for allowing me to photograph this bust and its companion bust of Palladio.
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Sir Joshua Reynolds and his bust of Michaelangelo.


Two portraits of Joshua Reynolds (- 1792) also depicting his much valued bust of  'Michael Angelo' 
The bust shown in these two portraits has always been referred to until now as the bust of Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra but these must be versions of the bust by Michael Rysbrack. It would appear that Da Volterra left three bronze heads with busts and three heads of Michael Angelo in his studio when he died. (see article by Jeremy Warren below).
It is my contention that the Rysbrack bust, known before 1727 and seen by George Vertue was taken from a bronze head of Michelangelo by da Volterra which was probably in his own collection and which is believed to be that bust that was acquired by Richard Cosway and is now in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford.
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), PRA
Sir Joshua Reynolds with the bust of 'Michael Angelo'
Angelica Kaufman
oil on canvas
127 x 101.5 cms
1767
Photograph courtesy National Trust, Saltram, Devon.
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Self Portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds wearing his robes as Honarary Oxford DCL as Presedent of the Royal Academy
with a bust of Michelangelo
Presented to the Royal Academy in 1780.
After Sir Joshua Reynolds
Self Portrait
Valentine Green
480 x 380 mm.
Mezzotint
I Dec 1780.
British Museum.
The bust in these portraits was the last item put up for auction - Lot 78 - 19 May 1821 by Christie's the in Pall Mall, in the sale of the properties of the Marchioness of Thomond, the niece of Sir Joshua Reynolds who had died the previous year. (Article from the Globe).
There is no mention of material.
see Art in England, 1821 - 1837 by William Whitley pub. Cambridge University Press 1930.
Sir Joshua Reynolds A Complete Catalogue... Mannings, pub. Yale 2000.
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The Portrait Bust of Michelangelo
By Daniele Ricciarelli Da Volterra.
Ashmolean Museum
A short essay from Renaissance Master Bronzes  ... Ashmolean by Jeremy Warren. 1999.



 Autoritratto con i busti di Michelangelo e Rubens

The provenance to Richard Cosway to my mind is perhaps now doubtful given that the bust of Micheal Angelo in this self portrait is full length and closer to the Rysbrack Model.

Illustration Courtesy Maria Cosway Fondazione, Lodi, Italy.



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Head of Michael Angelo
Daniele da Volterra
Ashmolean Museum Oxford

Photographed by the author.

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Michael Angelo
Bronze Medallion
58 mm
by Leone Leoni
1560
British Museum

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Woodcut portrait of Michelangelo from the offprint of Vasari's Life of Michelangelo
Michelangelo Buonarroti
engraving from
Lives of the Artists
125 x 106 mm
pub. 1550 and (this edition illustrated here) updated 1568.
Vasari
Spencer Museum of Art. University of Kansas.
Portrait of Michelangelo; bust turned to l, with beard, oval Pen and brown ink
Drawing attrib. to Passerotti
Brown ink
388 x 260 mm
They say probably taken from a bust by Daniele da Volterra
British Museum
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Portrait of Michelangelo, bust in profile to l; round plate  Engraving
Michael Angelo
Lambert Suavius
Netherlands
100mm diam
Dated 1561- within the lifetime of Michael Angelo.
British Museum.
Portrait of Michelangelo in profile facing right set within a recess after Enea Vico Engraving
Michael Angelo
After Ennio Vico
 pub. Pietro Stefanoni
Engraving
245 x 186 mm
British Museum

To be continued ................