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Architecture
Giambologna (Jean Boulogne) (Flemish (worked in Italy), 1529–1608)
Italian (Florence)
Renaissance
about 1600
Object Place: Europe, Florence, Italy
Medium/Technique
Metal; Bronze; marble base
Dimensions
Overall: 45.1 x 12.1 x 15.2 cm (17 3/4 x 4 3/4 x 6 in.)
Credit Line
Maria Antoinette Evans Fund and 1931 Purchase Fund
Accession Number40.23
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsSculpture
Personifying Architecture, this figure holds a framing square, protractor, and compass. The bronze's surface finish is of the highest quality, and the graceful, twisting pose and turn of the head encourage viewing from all sides.
DescriptionFigure of "Architecture". Nude female figure wearing fillet, drapery over right leg, holding in right hand a drawing instruments and in her left a drawing board. Signed on lower edge of drawing, GIO BOLONGE.
Signed
Signed on lower edge of tablet, GIO BOLONGE.
ProvenanceEdmund Hegan Kennard (b. 1834 - d. 1912), London [see note 1]. By December 1937, Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co., Inc., New York [see note 2]; March 8, 1938, consigned by Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co. to M. Knoedler and Co., New York (stock no. CA 1243) [see note 3]; June 1938, sold by Knoedler to Clendenin James Ryan (b. 1882 - d. 1939), Baltimore; January 19-20, 1940, posthumous Ryan sale, Parke Bernet, New York, lot 270, to Paul M. Byk of Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co., for the MFA for $2420. (Accession Date: February 8, 1940)
NOTES:
[1] According to the Ryan auction catalogue ("Gothic and Renaissance Paintings and British XVIII Century Portraits," Parke Bernet Galleries, January 19-20, 1940, p. 125).
[2] In a letter from Paul M. Byk of Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co. to George Edgell, MFA (December 4, 1937), the sculpture is referred to as "our" bronze -- i.e., in the possession of the gallery -- but "still in Europe". It may have been at the Paris branch of Arnold Seligmann et Cie.
[3] Getty Provenance Index, M. Knoedler and Co. records, Commission Book 3, 1927-1943, no. 1243, p. 96.
NOTES:
[1] According to the Ryan auction catalogue ("Gothic and Renaissance Paintings and British XVIII Century Portraits," Parke Bernet Galleries, January 19-20, 1940, p. 125).
[2] In a letter from Paul M. Byk of Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co. to George Edgell, MFA (December 4, 1937), the sculpture is referred to as "our" bronze -- i.e., in the possession of the gallery -- but "still in Europe". It may have been at the Paris branch of Arnold Seligmann et Cie.
[3] Getty Provenance Index, M. Knoedler and Co. records, Commission Book 3, 1927-1943, no. 1243, p. 96.