Culture Minister defers export of a pair of bronze statues inspired by classical mythology

069/2008
3 July 2008

Culture Minister, Margaret Hodge, has placed a temporary export bar on a pair of full scale sculptures made by master bronze caster Pietro Cipriani in Florence in 1724.  This will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the bronzes, which were originally commissioned for the 1st Earl of Macclesfield, in the United Kingdom.

The Minister’s ruling follows a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, administered by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. The Committee recommended that the export decision be deferred on the grounds that the pair of sculptures is of outstanding significance for the study of sculpture in bronze and the history of the classical tradition in art in the 18th century.

The two bronzes, Medici Venus and Dancing Faun, are copies of antique marble sculptures in the Uffizi in Florence. Acquired on the Grand Tour, they were specially commissioned from one of the most accomplished bronze casters in Italy at the time.  Originally intended for one of the most significant sculpture galleries in Britain, that formed by Lord Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire in the 1720s, they epitomise the passion eighteenth-century British collectors felt for classical sculpture.

Tim Knox of the Reviewing Committee said: “These high-quality bronzes are unique survivals of a carefully accumulated collection of classically inspired sculpture, and their study will add to our understanding of the history of this aspect of collecting.  They will also throw light on the career of Cipriani, a little-known artist deserving of further study.”

The decision on the export licence application for the bronzes will be deferred for a period ending on 2 September 2008 inclusive. This period may be extended until 2 January 2009 inclusive if a serious intention to raise funds with a view to making an offer to purchase the bronzes at the recommended price of £5,000,000 (excluding VAT) is expressed.

Anyone interested in making an offer to purchase the sculptures should contact the owner’s agent through:
 
The Secretary
Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
Wellcome Wolfson Building
165 Queen’s Gate
South Kensington
London SW7 5HD

Notes to editors

  1. Media enquiries on the operation of and casework arising from the work of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) should  be directed Tim Carter on 07752 193 330, email: tim.carter@mla.gov.uk
  2. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by MLA, which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria. Where the Committee finds that an object meets one or more of the criteria, it will normally recommend that the decision on the export licence application should be deferred for a specified period. An offer may then be made from within the United Kingdom at or above the fair market price.
  3. Pictures of this item are available. Please email john.harrison@mla.gov.uk (MLA no longer subscribes to the PixMedia website service).
  4. The two figures (height 152.5 cm and 143.5 cm respectively) are each inscribed on the integral bases: ‘Petrvs Cipriani Formavit et Fvdit Florentiae/ A.S. MDCCXXIV’ (Pietro Cipriani moulded and cast [this] in Florence in 1724); they are set on later pedestals.
  5. These bronzes are copies of two iconic marble figures in the Tribuna of the Gallerie degli Uffizi in Florence. They were cast by Pietro Cipriani, who in 1709 had assisted the great Florentine bronze sculptor Massimilano Soldani-Benzi (1656-1740) in the casting of bronze copies of these same antique statues for the Duke of Malborough for Blenheim. Soldani was the greatest bronze caster in Europe in the baroque period, his studio being located in the Uffizi. Cipriani also became a master bronze caster, and was working independently of Soldani by the 1720s, supplying copies of antique sculptures in bronze and plaster to British visitors to Florence.
  6. The works are in immaculate condition. The hair of both figures is finely tooled, recalling goldsmiths’ work and the straps on the Faun’s cymbals have a similar delicately textured finish. His legs exhibit a smooth, defined musculature, while the feet show the outline of the veins. The Venus’s ideal beauty is accentuated by her elongated fingers and the curve of her back.
  7. Cipriani was commissioned to produce the present statues in 1722 for Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield (1666-1732) by his son, the Hon. George Parker (c. 1697-1764), at a cost of over £200, a substantial sum at the time. They had been dispatched to England by October 1724. The figures were owned by descent through the family until bought by the present owner after the Christie's sale in London in December 2005.
  8. Lord Parker was on the Grand Tour from 1719 to 1722, and spent the winter of 1721-2 in Florence. One of the purposes of his travels was to acquire significant works of art, particularly sculpture, on behalf of his father, much of whose sculpture collection consisted of copies after the antique. From 1720 he was accompanied by his tutor, the scholar and artist Edward Wright (1680-1750), who noted that casts were 'the most exact copies'. John Molesworth, a contemporary of Lord Parker, commented that 'As for statues … good copies are better than scurvy originals'.

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