Two turkeys
Not on view
Modeled from memory, not life, and virtually identically cast, with their wattles wobbling in the same direction, the birds were conceived as reliefs. One’s fingers fit rather comfortably in the spaces between feet and volutes. They probably served as door pulls, perhaps even in a private aviary. The turkey, craved by the masses, became a status symbol, perhaps especially so in Venice: a sumptuary law of 1557 banned its meat from all tables but those of patricians. The subject alone recalls Giambologna’s gloriously plumed Turkey in the Bargello, Florence, said to have been a portrait of grand duke Cosimo’s favorite fowl. But the dark, glinting, painterly surfaces of the Met pair are ultra-Venetian.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
