An Italian mortar with fanciful animal motifs - image-1
An Italian mortar with fanciful animal motifs - image-2
An Italian mortar with fanciful animal motifs - image-3
An Italian mortar with fanciful animal motifs - image-4
An Italian mortar with fanciful animal motifs - image-5
An Italian mortar with fanciful animal motifs - image-1An Italian mortar with fanciful animal motifs - image-2An Italian mortar with fanciful animal motifs - image-3An Italian mortar with fanciful animal motifs - image-4An Italian mortar with fanciful animal motifs - image-5

Lot 638 Dα

An Italian mortar with fanciful animal motifs

Auction 1152 - overview Cologne
29.05.2020, 11:00 - Highly Important Mortars from the Schwarzach Collection II
Estimate: 2.000 € - 3.000 €
Result: 4.000 € (incl. premium)
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An Italian mortar with fanciful animal motifs

Golden brown cast bronze with shimmering patina. One small twisted C-shaped handle. Decorated with a central winged demi-figure beside a lion, a hippogryph, a deer, and an ox, each flanking a tree. H 10.4, D 12.4 cm. Weight c. 2.6 kg.
Venice, attributed to the Alberghetti workshop, 16th century.

The Alberghetti have been known at the latest since the end of the 15th century thanks to a gunsmith who can be traced back to Ferrara and Venice. Giovanni, Alfonso and Gian Francesco Alberghetti, among others, were also active as bronze casters in Venice in the 16th and early 17th century. A few signed casts can be attributed to them today, including a mortar with similar decoration to the present work, which is attributed to Giovanni Alberghetti and today housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (inv. no. 345-1889). The work uses similar applied motifs to this mortar. Typical of the family and their workshop are depictions of animals and lush garlands of laurel or vegetation.

Literature

Comparable mortars in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, shown in cat. Motture, Bells & Mortars, Catalogue of Italian Bronzes in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2001, Cat. No. 23 - 25.