Mercury

Workshop of Severo Calzetta da Ravenna Italian

Not on view

Mercury, with open mouth and fairly expansive gesture (his left hand once held a caduceus), appears in his role as god of eloquence. A more energetic variation of the model has bulging thighs.[1] Squarish plugs, characteristic of Severo’s workshop, are above the buttocks. The statuette was later mounted by two screws to a waisted bronze socle with a beaded molding, and a green patina of uncertain date was probably supplied to make the piece look “Roman.”
-JDD



Footnotes
(For key to shortened references see bibliography in Allen, Italian Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022.)

1. Private collection, Munich (as “Meister der Götterfiguren”), per Weihrauch 1967, fig. 125.

Mercury, Workshop of Severo Calzetta da Ravenna (Italian, active by 1496, died before 1543), Bronze, on an ancient bronze base, Italian, Ravenna

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Mercury, Workshop of Severo Calzetta da Ravenna (Italian, active by 1496, died before 1543), Bronze, on an ancient bronze base, Italian, Ravenna
Mercury, Workshop of Severo Calzetta da Ravenna (Italian, active by 1496, died before 1543), Bronze, on an ancient bronze base, Italian, Ravenna

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