ITALIAN, ROMAN MID 16TH CENTURY: GUGLIELMO DELLA PORTA (C.1500-1577) AND HIS CLOSE CIRCLE

CHRIST AT THE COLUMN

silver figurine, with minutely granulated surface to the skin, 8cm (3 1/8 in.) high, standing lashed against a silver-gilt fluted Corinthian column on a rectangular plinth., 13 cm. (5 1/8 in) high. The figure is set diagonally at 45 degrees to the square plinth below, mounted in its original, late Mannerist, ebony tabernacle, with silver-gilt appliques of (above) the Dove of the Holy Spirit descending against an integral pattern of rays of light; with (upper corners and below centre) three Cherubim; and the tabernacle flanked by a pair of repousse metal volutes, formerly silvered. Though slightly more ornate, this ebony tabernacle is closely related in style to that of a silver Mount Calvary in the Monastery of El Escorial, Madrid (inv. 10048054), see Coll & Cortes, 2012, p.109, fig 57.

PROVENANCE: New York, Collection of the late Michael Hall., his sale Christie’s, New York…; Private collections.

ADDITIONAL ATTACHED IMAGES:

Image 2. - Victoria & Albert Museum, Image 3. - Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Image 4. Detail from a folio with five sketches for the Flagellation of Christ Fig.

Image 5. another single sketch, more closely related to the present variation on the theme. Image 4 and 5 both from the Museum Kunstpalast, Duesseldorf, Small Sketchbook, folios 82 and 93.

Image 6. ‘Coll & Cortes’ Christ, silver. Image 7. Michelangelo, Christ the Redeemer, Michelangelo, Christ the Redeemer, marble, San Vincenzo Martire, Bassano Romano.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: W. Gramberg, Die Düsseldorfer Skizzenbücher des Guglielmo della Porta (Berlin, 1964)H.-W. Kruft, “Porta, della”, in J. Turner [ed.], The Dictionary of Art, London, 1996, vol. 25, pp. 255-57V.J. Avery, Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, exh.cat. Daniel Katz Gallery, London, 2002, pp. 151-53E.J. Olszewski, "Guglielmo della Porta”, in Antonia Bostrom [ed.], The Encyclopedia of Sculpture, New York/London, 2004, pp. 1333-36R. Coppel, C. Avery, M. Estella, Guglielmo della Porta: A Counter-Reformation Sculptor, exh. cat., Coll & Cortes, Madrid, 2012, pp. 40-41, fig.18; and pp.118-21, figs. 68-69.
Examples with Christ in a dramatic contrapposto1] Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum: Bequeathed by C.B. Marlay, 1912, No. Mar M.265-1912(Avery, V. 2002, No. 19, pp. 151-153) – see Fig.22] Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello: Carrand Bequest, No. 752, silver, 9.5cm high (see R. Coppel, C. Avery & M. Estella, Madrid, 2012, Fig 45, p. 88)3] Formerly in the collection of Mr George Durlacher of Hilcote, Lancaster Road, Wimbledon, and then of his widow (sold Sotheby’s, 9 November 1938, lot 100)

Victoria Avery in her 2002 catalogue of bronzes from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, wrote of their example as follows (Image.3): ‘This unpublished silver figurine is clearly derived from a model by Guglielmo della Porta, a Lombard sculptor and bronzist who trained in Milan under his father, and then worked in Genoa, before settling in Rome where he found great favour with Pope Julius III Farnese. In 1547 Guglielmo was appointed to the Office of the Papal seal, a sinecure that he retained until his death in 1577.
The Fitzwilliam Christ is identical in type, elongated proportions and pose to the free-standing protagonist of a multi-figural composition in high relief of the Flagellation of Christ in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (see image.2) [as is the formerly Durlacher example].
The high relief composition is derived from a folio of five rapidly executed, but sensitive, sketches begun in chalk and finished in pen and ink for the Passion of Christ (Gramberg, 1964, Small Sketchbook, p. 82). Two represent scenes of the Flagellation, while three are excerpts of the focal figure of Christ at the Column. That on the lower right is closest to the figure as sculpted (Image 4).

However, Rosario Coppel in the comprehensive catalogue of works by Della Porta presented in 2012 by Messrs Coll & Cortes (figs. 35 & 48-49) was the first person to describe a separately made silver figurine of virtually the same size (8.6cm) as ours (8cm) in another, larger, heterogeneous rendering of the Flagellation set within an octagonal ebony frame with a variety of ornaments.
She also drew attention to the existence - on a slightly later page - of a separate sketch for a more soberly posed figure which accords more closely with the ‘Coll & Cortes’ and with the present version (Image 6), save for the fact that the Saviour’s hands are now lashed behind his back, presumably to avoid confusion with the folds of his loincloth in front. These figurines of Christ are not so agonizingly twisted about under the hail of blows from his savage executioners as in the narrative scenes or single figures discussed above.
In a separate essay Charles Avery (pp. 128-29) remarked on the influence on Della Porta of Michelangelo’s monumental marble sculpture, noting in this case the first version (1516) – only recently rediscovered in a minor church – of his Christ the Redeemer for Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome (image 7). Indeed, the pose of the lower part of our figurine is almost in mirror-image to that of Michelangelo’s rendering in marble of his not dissimilar figure. It now invites contemplation and adoration from the beholder as ‘God made Man’.

The present, individual, figurine of Christ at the Column in its purposely designed tabernacle, when viewed without the glass, would arguably prove to have an even more minutely chased surface, differentiating Christ’s skin from the fabric of his loincloth.