Oil lamp in the form of a grotesque animal
School of Andrea Briosco, called Riccio Italian
Not on view
Bernard de Montfaucon illustrated an example of such an oil lamp as antique.[1] Many of the type exist but have not been studied, probably because they are not Italian. The sinuous creature somewhat calls to mind the salamander-like shapes that were a staple of French bronziers, but there is none resembling it by Barthélemy Prieur, who might otherwise be a candidate.[2] The creature is also formally reminiscent of the fantastic hybrid grotesques by the Amsterdam bronze master Arent van Bolten (fig. 187a).[3]
-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. Montfaucon 1719–22, vol. 5, pl. 144, no. 2.
2. Regina Seelig-Teuwen in Bresc-Bautier et al. 2008, pp. 102–47.
3. See Scholten and Verber 2005, pp. 130–33, cats. 40, 41.
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