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Charity
Giovanni Guilliani (Italian (Venetian), active in Vienna and Heiligenbreug, 1663–1744)
Italian
1717
Medium/Technique
Terracotta
Dimensions
Overall: 18.1 x 13 x 36cm (7 1/8 x 5 1/8 x 14 3/16in.)
Credit Line
H. E. Bolles Fund
Accession Number56.142
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsSculpture
DescriptionBozzetto. Reclining, naked woman, head supported by proper left hand, holds infant to her breast. Child grasps woman's proper right breast in his proper right hand, other arm holds woman around waist. Figures rest on drapery-covered shaped plinth.
Signed
"Goan. 1717" over "Guilliana. Fecit Aeta Sui LII" at back.
ProvenanceOscar Bondy (b. 1870 - d. 1944) and Elisabeth Bondy, Vienna; 1938, confiscated from Oscar and Elisabeth Bondy by Nazi forces (no. OB 947) [see note 1]; stored at the Central Depot, Neue Burg, Vienna, and probably removed to Alt Aussee [see note 2]; 1945, recovered by Allied forces and subsequently returned to Elisabeth Bondy, New York; probably sold by Mrs. Bondy to Blumka Gallery, New York [see note 3]; 1956, sold by Blumka Gallery to the MFA for $600. (Accession Date: March 8, 1956)
NOTES:
[1] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Oscar and Elisabeth Bondy were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This sculpture is listed in a Nazi-generated inventory of his collection (July 4, 1938; Vienna, BDA-Archiv, Restitutions-Materialen, K 8/1), no. 947 ("Tonbozzetto, liegende nackte Frau auf Marmorsockel, sign. Giulinani [sic], 1717, 15 x 40"). Also see Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 244, where it is listed in a later inventory of his possessions as well (April 3, 1939; Vienna, BDA-Archiv, Restitutions-Materialen, K 8/3).
[2] Many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept stafe from wartime bombing.
[3] Mr. Bondy and his wife left Europe and emigrated to the United States, where he passed away in 1944. In the years following World War II, much of his collection was restituted to his widow and subsequently sold on the New York art market, particularly through Blumka Gallery. For further on Oscar Bondy, see Lillie, 2003 (as above, n. 1), pp. 216-245.
NOTES:
[1] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Oscar and Elisabeth Bondy were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This sculpture is listed in a Nazi-generated inventory of his collection (July 4, 1938; Vienna, BDA-Archiv, Restitutions-Materialen, K 8/1), no. 947 ("Tonbozzetto, liegende nackte Frau auf Marmorsockel, sign. Giulinani [sic], 1717, 15 x 40"). Also see Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 244, where it is listed in a later inventory of his possessions as well (April 3, 1939; Vienna, BDA-Archiv, Restitutions-Materialen, K 8/3).
[2] Many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept stafe from wartime bombing.
[3] Mr. Bondy and his wife left Europe and emigrated to the United States, where he passed away in 1944. In the years following World War II, much of his collection was restituted to his widow and subsequently sold on the New York art market, particularly through Blumka Gallery. For further on Oscar Bondy, see Lillie, 2003 (as above, n. 1), pp. 216-245.