The Archer
Bronze Sculpture
The Archer
Ernst Moritz Geyger (1861-1941)
Bronze Sculpture
1909
42” x 27.5” x 10”
The Archer is Geyger’s most celebrated work. The Gladenbeck foundry acquired the rights to cast reductions in bronze and edited them in three sizes, with one such model appearing on the front of their 1903 catalogue. While Geyger's inspiration ultimately derives from antiquity and more specifically from an ancient torso of a wrestler in Berlin, his particular achievement lies in the fresh and modern reinterpretation of the Ideal, harnessing a stylised male physique in a composition full of the undiluted energy in the split second before the release of the archer’s arrow.
Inventory #1003
Price $28,500
The Archer
Messenger of Victory (Nenikhkamen)
Bronze Sculpture -Early 20th Century
Max Kruse (1854-1942)
Bronze Sculpture by Gladenback & Son
Germany
Early 20th Century
20.5” x 17.5 x 5”
Depicting the Greek messenger Pheidippides running, the base cast as set of three rough steps, signed on the base, Max Kruse Fec and foundry mark H. Gladenbeck & Sohn.
Illustrated in H. Berman, Bronzes, Sculptors and Founders, 1800-1930, Chicago, 1980 Volume IV, page 905. Nenikikamen is a translation of the ancient Greek 'we have won', and according to legend was the last word of the messenger Pheidippides after he completed his run to Marathon from Athens to report the defeat of the Persians in 490 BC. There is another example of this model in the Berlin Museum entitled Messenger of the Marathon.
Inventory #1012
Price $4,500
Messenger of Victory (Nenikhkamen)
Peplophoros
Polished Bronze Sculpture
Italian School
Polished Bronze Sculpture
Italy
Late 19th or Early 20th Century
14.25” x 5” x 5”
Called a peplophoros, this small sculpture is inspired by Greek originals of about 470 B.C. It portrays a woman wearing a peplos, a garment that was pinned at the shoulders and belted at the waist, creating straight, heavy folds to the feet. Her raised arms imply that she may be dancing. The cobra at her feet adds interest and intrigue, possibly from a lost ceremony.
Inventory #1015
Price $1,850
Peplophoros
Birdman
Large Bronze Sculpture Male Nude
Birdman
Otto Poertzel
Large Bronze Sculpture
Brussels
1925
45” x 9” x 9”
An impressive portrayal in bronze of a youth releasing an eagle to hunt. Otto Poertzel trained as a porcelain modeller at Kister Factory in Scheibe. In 1893, he studied at the Technical Academy for Porcelain in Sonneberg under Prof. Möller. From 1900, he was an independent sculptor in Coburg. In 1908, he had his own studio in Munich and attended the Academy of Art under Prof. Hildebrand. In 1913, he was a professor. Participant in significant exhibitions, including exhibits of his larger pieces at the world fairs in St. Louis and Brussels.
Inventory #1007
Price $7,500
Bird Man
Seated Mercury
Lifesize Bronze Sculpture
Seated Mercury
Italian School, possibly Naples
Lifesize Bronze Sculpture
Italy
Late 19th Century
48” x 28” x 42”
The Seated Mercury (or Seated Hermes) was discovered on August 3, 1758 during the excavations, in the peristyle garden of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum. It’s one of the most famous works discovered in the ancient sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii in the 18th century, and a must-see for Grand Tour travelers in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Related works:
Getty Villa in Malibu, California
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Villa San Michele, Anacapri
Orsteds Park, Copenhagen
Inventory #1002
Price $48,500
Seated Mercury
Neapolitan Fisherman
Bronze Sculpture
Neapolitan Fisherman
Fonderia Giorgio Sommer
Bronze Sculpture
Italy, Naples
Third Quarter of the 19th Century
20.5” x 13” x 12”
The Grand Tour Bronze cast as a Neapolitan Fisherman after the original excavated in 1823 at Pompeii in the Casa della Fontana piccola (House of the small fountain). The finely cast Sculpture is seated upon a rocky outcrop with a Bacchus mask fountain spout beneath him. The figure barefooted wearing a loose-fitting tunic and straw hat leans forward with his hands poised. The Grand Tour Bronze dates to the late 19th century, circa 1875, and is signed around the Bacchus fountain mask G. Sommer Napoli.
Inventory #1013
Price $6,500
Neapolitan Fisherman
Number 14
Large Bronze Abstract Sculpture
Number 14
Giorgio Zennaro (1926-2005)
Large Bronze Abstract Sculpture
Pietrasanta, Italy
1972
23.25” x 46” x 18.5”
Giorgio Zennaro’s sculpting career began early with his participation from 1953 to 1965 in all the Group Sculpture Exhibitions of the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation. In 1955, he won the first prize of the Municipality of Venice.
Number 14 is from a show that he created in 1973…to highlight new forms, both large and small…in bronze, marble and lucite.
Inventory #1004
Price $32,500
Number 14
Spinario (Boy with Thorn)
Mid-19th Century Bronze Sculpture
Spinario
Benedetto Boschetti, Roma
Bronze Sculpture
Italy
Mid-19th Century
19.75” x 9.25” x 13”
A large-scale and very finely modeled Grand Tour bronze sculpture. The Greco-Roman "Spinario" or the "Boy with Thorn", in the Capitoline Museum of Rome is the original that inspired this sculpture. The beautiful verdigris patina is the natural result of being outside in a garden for several decades.
Boschetti ran an important shop on the via Condotti in Rome from about 1820-1860. He won a medal at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. Works signed Boschetti rarely come to market.
Signed to the plinth: B. Boschetti - Roma
Inventory #1001
Price $12,500
Sponario (Boy with Thorn)
Arrotino (Knife Sharpener)
Lifesize Bronze Bust on Socle
Arrotino (Knife Sharpener)
Fonderia Artistica Chiurazzi
Lifesize Bronze Bust on Socle
Naples, Italy
Mid to Late 19th Century
22” x 10” x 10”
Finest 19th century quality bronze from Naples, this masterpiece by Chiurazzi depicts the knife sharpener. The original marble Arrotino resides in the Tribune at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Arrotino is sharpening his knife, as he is about to flay the satyr Marsyas, who lost a flute competition with the gods. For his hubris, he was strung up and will have his skin removed, according to the myth.
This extraordinary work has a strong presence, as the artist has projected the head forward…which renders a dynamic and energized bust that is rarely found.
Inventory #1011
Price $9,500
Arrotino (Knife Sharpener)
Modernist Bust
Modernist Polished Bronze Bust
Charles Delporte (1928-2012)
Polished bronze bust, Signed and Numbered 34/100.
France
Mid-20th Century
13” x 5” x 5”
This modernist bust takes on an abstract form, as it resembles a mask. The work is influenced by the Symbolist movement, notably in its organic form and poetic expressiveness. The fluid style also evokes a certain kinship with the classical idealization of the female face.
Charles Delporte was a Belgian multidisciplinary artist, known for his painting, sculpture and writings. He developed a humanist art, imbued with spirituality and science, aiming to connect man with the universe. His work, marked by great sensitivity, seeks to transcend reality through beauty and symbolic reflection. Numbered 34/100.
Inventory #1010
Price $2,450