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Vulcan

late 16th century
Not on view
In Renaissance art, the Roman god of fire is usually shown in the character of a crippled blacksmith. As patron of those who worked with molten metal, Vulcan must have had a special meaning for the bronze artist. It would formerly have been the fashion to insist upon a name for this artist-and there are in fact certain resemblances to statuettes from the workshop of Girolamo Campagna-but in practice, the more one sees the fewer certainties there are about the lesser works generated by the increasingly numerous modelers and founders who were active in Venice in the late Renaissance. The figure once belonged to J. P. Morgan, whose collection of bronzes was so large that it forms the nucleus of more than one museum's holdings.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Vulcan
  • Date: late 16th century
  • Culture: Italian, Venice
  • Medium: Bronze
  • Dimensions: Overall with bolt (confirmed): 12 1/8 × 3 3/8 × 3 3/4 in. (30.8 × 8.6 × 9.5 cm); Height without bolt (confirmed): 10 3/8 in. (26.4 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture-Bronze
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Mary Cushing Fosburgh, 1978
  • Object Number: 1979.135.18
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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