Mercury
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.
-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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Mercury
- Artist: Workshop of Severo Calzetta da Ravenna (Italian, active by 1496, died before 1543)
- Date: mid-16th century
- Culture: Italian, Ravenna
- Medium: Bronze, on an ancient bronze base
- Dimensions: Overall (confirmed): 10 × 2 1/2 × 2 1/4 in. (25.4 × 6.4 × 5.7 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture-Bronze
- Credit Line: Gift of George Blumenthal, 1941
- Object Number: 41.100.75
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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