Antonio Susini (1558-1624), first quarter of the... Lot 50

Antonio Susini (1558-1624), first quarter of the 17th century Passing horse Bronze statuette Dim. 30 x 21 cm, resting on a blackened wooden base, H. 12.5 cm Provenance: private collection, Paris Estimate: €450,000 / €550,000 Expert : Cabinet LACROIX-JEANNEST Related works : -Atelier de Giambologna, Cheval au passage, circa 1595-1600, H. 23.7 cm, bronze, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, n°inv. A.148-1910; -Antonio Susini, Cheval au passage, bronze, circa 1600, signed "ANT: SVSINII FLOR: FE", H.29.5 cm, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, n°inv. A.11-1924; -Probably cast by Antonio Susini after a model by Giambologna, Cheval au passage, circa 1605, bronze, H. 38.9 cm with base, Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden, Grünes Gewolbe, n°inv.IX.33. Related literature: - C. Avery, "Medici and Stuart: A Grand Ducal Gift of 'Giovanni Bologna' Bronzes for Henry Prince of Wales (1612)", in The Burlington Magazine, vol. 115, n°845, Aug 1973, pp.493-507; -C. Avery and A. Radcliffe, Giambologna 1528-1609. Sculptor to the Medici, exh. Cat. Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, London, 1978, pp. 172-186, cat no. 151; cat.n°160, pp.178-179 -D. Gasparotto, 'Cavalli e cavalieri. Il monument equestre da Giambologna a Foggini', B. Paolozzi Strozzi and D. Zikos, Giambologna. Gli dei, gli eroi, exh. Cat. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Florence/ Milan, 2006, pp. 88-106; -A. Kugel, Les bronzes du Prince de Liechtenstein. Renaissance and Baroque Masterpieces Baroque, J. Kugel, MMVIII, Paris, 2008, p. 94, no. 12; -Tommasso Brothers Fine Arts, Scultura, catalog of the exhibition held from October 15 to November 1 November 2008, Paul Holberton Publishing, no. 16 p. 70 ; -P. Wengraf, Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes, from The Hill Collection, Paul Holberton publishing, London, London, 2014, notice 7 pp.126-135; -Ss dir. E. Schmidt, Plasmato dal Fuoco, la scultura in bronze nella Firenze degli ultimi Medici, catalog de l'expositon (18 septembre 2019-12 janvier 2020), Le Gallerie degli Uffizi, Ed. Sillabe, 2019, pp.154-159 and notice 30, p.613-615 The genesis of the "Passing Horse" model dates back to the 1560s/70s. Various documents indicate the presence in Giambologna's workshop of a wax prototype of a of the "cavalino". In response to a commission from Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici to erect a monument to the glory of his father Cosimo I, similar to the ancient equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome's Piazza del Campidoglio, Giambologna reworked and enlarged his prototype of the Passing Horse. Antonio Susini, who had previously trained as a goldsmith and had become Giambologna's close collaborator, took part in this creative process, assisting him "to execute the models, molds and casts, as well as to clean them and then build them", according to Filippo Baldinucci (1625-1687). Giambologna first imagined two types of horse model: one with a cut mane, the other with a flowing mane. After 1600, Antonio Susini created a third horse model in his own workshop, known thanks to a copy - the only one signed - preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This horse model seems to have been mainly used for equestrian statuettes, as shown by four examples listed by Patricia Wengraf (Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Hill Collection,2014, p.135). These equestrian statues represent Henri IV, Philippe III and Charles Emmanuel de Savoie. The Kassel Museum, where a version of the equestrian statue of Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy, is kept, suggests in its description that this representation of the Prince of Savoy was designed to be a counterpart to the equestrian statuette of King Henri IV (a specimen kept at the Musée des beaux-arts de Dijon), leading to the hypothesis that these works were conceived by Antonio Susini at the time of the alliance between the Crown of France and the Duchy of Savoy, through the marriage of Christine de France, daughter of Henri IV, and Victor Amédée 1er de Savoie, son of Charles Emmanuelle de Savoie, on February 19, 1619. Our striking example is based on the latter model, designed by Antonio Susini. The sculpture depicts a horse with its right foreleg and left hind leg raised in a symmetrical natural gait consisting of a diagonal trot, known as "au passage". The mane is loose and floats on the left side of the neck. The tail falls naturally, without the sophisticated braiding seen on some examples based on models by Giambologna. The animal's anatomy is powerfully or subtly modeled. The superciliary arches are prominent, the eyeballs