Circle of Hermann Vischer the Younger (German, 1486-1517): A patinated bronze bust length figural relief of God the Father in Benediction

South German, probably first half 16th century

Footnotes

Provenance
Private European collection.

This unusual half-length figure depicts the Almighty wearing a closed crown, his right hand raised in a gesture of blessing and the globe of the world held in his lowered left hand, emerging from a base modelled as perhaps a formalised bank of swirling clouds or probably more likely a stylised scaly serpent representing eternal life, albeit it now lacking its head and tail.

The back of the bronze is solid with no detailing and without traces of any elaborate attachments save for a central inset rectangular section. However whatever liturgical use the figure once had, it seems that this was subsequently simplified so that it was later on simply placed on a flat surface, perhaps as a private devotional piece.

The gross simplifications of the fall of God's hair and the stylised folds for its garments indicate that the figure was cast from a model carved in wood, as was standard practice in South Germany, known for its limewood carving. This move in the direct abstraction and concept perhaps now appealing to present day taste.

The suggestion of a connection with one of the members of the distinguished dynasty of sculptors in bronze is based on a comparison with part of a set of statuettes made for the tomb of Elisabeth and Hermann VII von Henneberg in the Stadtkirche of Roemhild that dates from circa 1508-15 and was made by Hermann Vischer the younger (i.e. at much the same date as the tomb of the English king Henry VIII in Westminster Abbey by the Italian itinerant sculptor Pietro Torrigiano and some Flemish foundrymen for the subsidiary details on its screen).

The present lot is similar in feel to, although less refined than, a bigger (22.5cm high) bronze bust of Hippocrates in the Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh (see Avery, 1993). The ancient Greek philosopher is shown in the guise of a 'northern humanist' of the epoch wearing a cap and cape: he holds an open book in his right hand (inscribed in capitals 'ARS LUNGA') and in his left an hour-glass, behind which curls upward a parchment scroll (similarly inscribed 'VITA BREVIS'), a tag meaning, 'Life if short (but) Art is long', a saying of this particularly philosopher. Its sinuous form is similar to the lines of the stylised scrolls representing clouds or more likely an abstracted serpent.

Comparative Literature
For the Vischer family of sculptors in bronze in English.
J. Montague, Bronzes, London, 1963-72, pp. 48-50, fig 65.
J.C. Smith, Nuremberg: A Renaissance City, 1500-1618 [exhib. cat], University of Texas, Austin, 1983.
C. Avery, Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes in the Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh, 1993, pp. 123-5.
W.D. Wixom, Vischer, in J. Turner [ed.], The Encyclopaedia of Sculpture, New York / London, 2004, vol. 3, pp. 1728-33.

For the Vischer family of sculptors in bronze in Italian / German.
S. Metter [trans. G. Delogu], Statuette in Bronzo del Rinascimento Tedesco, Milan 1937.
E.F. Bange, Die Deutschen Bronzestatuetten des 16. Jahrhunderts, Berlin, 1949, pp. 30-33, 121-123, pl.
H.R. Weihrauch, Europaïsche Bronzestatuetten, 15.-18. Jahrhundert, Brunschweig, 1967, pp 286-88.