Anima Dannata (the Damned Soul).
after Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Naples 1598 - 1680 Rome)
Previously attributed to Joseph Wilton (1722 - 1803).
Marble bust; on an Italian black marble (Nero Portoro) socle.
22 in. (56 cm.) high, overall.
Offered by Christie's 7 December 2023.
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6458288
The Anima Dannata (Damned Soul) was created alongside another
altogether different bust showing an Anima Beata (Blessed Soul) represented by
a young woman in a state of peace, eyes raised heavenward. Both works are today
housed at the Palazzo di Spagna in Rome.
This is dangerous territory but I think that this bust might be by Roubiliac rather than Wilton.
The Christie's Catalogue makes the point that the socle is similar to that on the bust of Lord Chesterfield convincingly attributed to Wilton based on a number of factors.
"Wilton was familiar with Bernini’s oeuvre; his surviving sketchbooks include drawings after the Baroque master’s monuments and he is documented as having supplied the Duke of Richmond with two plasters after elements of Bernini’s monument to Alexander VII (Kenworthy-Browne, op. cit., p. 47).
In addition, the shape of the socle in the present lot also points to Wilton’s authorship. Its rectangular waisted form is highly unusual but can be found in several works by Wilton, the closest of which is his portrait of Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (British Museum, London, inv. no. 1777, 0620.1).
A final element supporting an attribution to Wilton is that the treatment of the reverse, namely the patterns left by the tooling, is comparable to the bust of Philip Stanhope and other known works including his portrait of Dr. Antonio Cocchi (V&A, London, inv. no. A.9-1966) and ‘Bust of a Man (After the Antique)’ (Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 87.SA.110)".
This all seems very reasonable until one looks at the Socles on several of Roubiliac's busts, in particular those of Charles I (Wallace Collection and Courtauld collections ), that on the marble bust of Shakespeare in the Folger Library, those of Lord and Lady Leicester on the Coke monument in Tittishall Church Norfolk and those on the busts drawn by Nollekens at about the time of the Roubiliac posthumous sale in 1762 (see below).
I. WILTON: fecit:ad Vivum. 1757.
Provenance: Probably commissioned by the sitter, 1757; given to Sir Thomas Robinson Bt (?1700-77) by Chesterfield; bequeathed by Robinson, 1777.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1777-0620-1?selectedImageId=1138345001
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To further the Christie's argument - The inscribed bust of Leake Okeover by Wilton has a very similar socle as does that of his wife Mary.
see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2021/02/marble-bust-by-charles-stanley-of-mary.html
But this argument becomes less persuasive when confronted with the visual evidence regarding the Roubiliac socles pictured here below.
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Marble bust of Leake Okeover (1702 -1765) by Joseph Wilton.
In the spring of 1751, facing debts of about £25,000, he took
off to northern France for almost two years, lodging under the alias ‘Mr.
Scrimpshaw‘ and leaving his wife and trustees to firefight the liabilities.
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Mary Okeover.
Marble bust.
Private Collection.
Another pointer to the Roubiliac authorship is the use of the same drapery on the bust of Elizabeth Maynard on the Maynard Monument at Little Easton Church Essex. see below. -
Another
feature which as far as I know appears exclusively on Roubiliac's busts.
The bust of Mary Okeover is Illustrated in the Exhibition Catalogue: The Treasure Houses of Great Britain, 500 Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting, 1985.
The entry in the catalogue which was written by Malcolm Baker makes the assertion that this bust was carved by Anglo/Danish Sculptor Charles Stanley with the socle carved by Joseph Wilton to make it match the bust of Leake Okeover by Wilton (below) signed by Wilton and dated 1762.
The details of the drapery on the bust of Lady Elizabeth
Maynard on the Charles Maynard Monument of 1746 by Charles Stanley at St Mary's Little
Easton, Essex., which are the same as the drapery on the Mary Okeover bust is
pointed out by Malcolm Baker in the exhibition catalogue.
I might be in error but this is the only the second case I know of of another sculptor possibly using the same drapery on busts of different sitters, the first being several examples by Roubiliac.
I would therefor suggest that the bust of Mary Okeover is by Roubiliac and that the socle on the bust of Leake Okeover by Wilton was carved to match that of Mary Okeover by Roubiliac rather than the socle of Mary's bust carved to match that of Leake Okeover.
Suggesting that these busts were made using similar methods of reproducing their busts with some sort of pointing machine.
I think a visit to Little Easton is in order to obtain better photographs of the individual elements.
This begs the question - was there a connection between Stanley and Roubiliac or is it just coincidence that they used similar methods to reproduce their busts?
I have not examined either - it would be very useful to obtain better images of these busts.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/03/maynard-monument-by-charles-stanley.html
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The Folger Library Life Size Marble Bust of Shakespeare.
The Fordham Marble bust of William Shakespeare.
Provenance: Acquired by AR Fordham's grandfather in 1859,
Sold Sotheby's, Lot 54, on 15 November 1929.
Perhaps Lot 74, sold on the fourth day of the Roubiliac Sale on Saturday 15th May 1762.
Given that there are no marble versions of the terracotta Davenant (Garrick Club) and Matthew Maty (British Museum) busts extant or mentioned elsewhere this is most likely.
Information and Photograph courtesy
The Folger Shakespeare Library 201 East Capitol Street, SE Washington, DC 20003
I am extremely grateful to Georgianna Ziegler Assoc. Librarian and Head of Reference at the Folger Shakespeare Library for providing me with the photographs.
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Charles I.
Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Terracotta.
Height: 82.5 cm
Width: 64 cm
Courtauld Gallery Accession Number S.1947.LF.7
Acquired Arthur Hamilton Lee, bequest, 1947.
https://gallerycollections.courtauld.ac.uk/object-s-1947-lf-7
They say workshop? of Roubiliac c. 1759. To my eye the best of his busts of Charles I.
Perhaps one of the two busts in the posthumous Roubiliac sale
- lot 79 on second day's sale, 13 May 1762, or lot 74 on third day's sale, 14
May 1762.
see my post.
http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2020/11/bust-of-king-charles-i-by-roubiliac-at.html
For more on death masks and the Bernini bust lost in the fire at Whitehall Palace of 1698.
https://www.burlington.org.uk/media/_file/generic/article-17642.pdf
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The Nollekens Drawing. Inscribed Newton. It is not Newton.
So far this is the only bust in the drawings that cannot be positively identified.
I suspect that it is the bust of David Garrick.
The two later busts of Garrick by Westmacott have distinct similarities. One in the Royal Collection and the other on the monument in Lichfield Cathedral
A plaster bust was Lot 1, 1st day of the Roubiliac sale. Lot 54, 4th Day was a plaster mould.
Is this perhaps a lost bust of David Garrick by Roubiliac? later copied /adapted by Westmacott.
A bust of Garrick with a wig is attributed to John III Van Nost (d. 1780) on the slender evidence of J.T. Smith, who records this exchange: Macklin loquitur: ‘Do I not see your bust of Garrick in every barber’s shop-window, as a block for wigs?’ ‘No’, answered Nollekens, ‘it is not my bust; it is Van Nost’s.’ (J.T. Smith, Nollekens and his Times, 1828, II, 275.
This quote has always bothered me given that a bust used as a
wig blog would, as a necessity have to be bare headed. the other bust of
Garrick by Roubiliac (terracotta at the NPG ) is not suitable for us as a wig
block. The van Nost Garrick bust is wearing a wig with curls on the sides.
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The Roubiliac Bust of Lord Lister? Nollekens Harris /
Preston Drawing.
Here positively identified as a bust of Thomas Coke, Ist Earl of Leicester.
Image from the ART UK website.
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The Francis Chantry (1781 - 1841) copy of the Roubiliac bust
of Lord Leicester.
with the later style turned socle...................
Below an engraving showing the original socle.
The Bust of Lord Leicester "from a Bust at Holkham".
Early 19th Century Engraving.
The BM say the bust pictured is by Francis Chantry after Roubiliac but the socle suggests to me that this might be an engraving of the original Roubiliac bust Roubiliac Sale - Day 2. Lot 21. Plaster Bust and copied by Chantry.
Image courtesy British Museum.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0822-1429
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The Busts of Lord Leicester at the the Roubiliac Sale.
Day 1. Lot 87. Bust unfinish'd of Marble.
Day 2. Lot 21. Plaster Bust, Lot 27.
Day 3. Lot 90. A whole length of the Earl of Leicester in his robes plaster.(see image below)
Day 4. Lot. 55. Mould in plaister The Earl of Leicester in modern dress. Lot 56. Ditto Mould Earl of Leicester in Roman dress.
Lot 57. A small figure ditto.
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The plaster bust of Lord Leicester in the Marble Hall at Holkham Hall.
Photograph taken by the author.
The Tittleshall Church, Norfolk Monument with the busts by Roubiliac
The monument at Tittleshall, Norfolk put up by Charles
Atkinson fl. 1750 - 70, with busts by Roubiliac of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1759)
and the Countess.
Roubiliac uses the same form of the outer drapery on this bust as his busts of Charles I at the Courtauld and the Fordham Marble bust of Shakespeare now in the Folger Library Washington DC. USA.
Atkinson was responsible for carving chimneypieces and other works at Holkham - his yard was in Leadenhall Street, London (London Directory 1768).
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The Joseph Nollekens Harris / Preston Drawing of Dr Richard Meade.
The Busts of Dr Richard Mead at the Roubiliac Sale.
Lot 65. - Second Day - a Plaster Mould.
Lot 11. - Second Day - Plaster.
Lot 8 and Lot 13. - Third day - Plaster.
Lot 10. - Fourth day Plaster.
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