Renaissance & Baroque Bronzes from the Hill Collection
This richly illustrated and beautifully produced scholarly catalogue of the superlative collection of Renaissance and Baroque bronze figurative statuettes from the Hill Collection, accompanies an exhibition of 40 items at The Frick Collection, New York opening late January 2014.
Spanning from 1470 to 1740, the bronzes presented are of exceptional quality and exemplify the development of bronze statuettes from 1470 in Renaissance Italy to their dissemination across the artistic centres of Europe. The Hill Collection is distinguished by rare, autograph masterpieces by Italian sculptors such as Andrea Riccio and Giambologna, and has the most important collection of Baroque bronzes by Giuseppe Piamontini in the world. Its holdings of works by Giambologna and his school is the strongest found in any single collection, with the sole exception of the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, and evokes the splendour of the late Renaissance courts, while the richness of the international Baroque is represented by religious themes by Alessandro Algardi, northern bronzes by Adriaen de Vries and Hubert Gerhard, and a remarkable assemblage of French 116th-and early 17th-century bronzes in the classical mode, by Barthélemy Prieur and from the circle of Ponce Jacquiot.
The Hill Collection reveals the range of artistry, invention and technical refinement characteristic of sculptures created when the tradition of the European statuette was at its height.
The catalogue includes detailed biographies of each of the artists represented, and is introduced with essays by the distinguished authors. Patricia Wengraf is one of the world’s leading dealers in bronzes, sculpture and works of art, and in her particular speciality, bronzes of the 15th-18th centuries, her knowledge and connoisseurship are of world repute. Denise Allen is Curator of Renaissance Paintings and Sculpture at the Frick Collection. Claudia Kryza-Gersch, formerly Kunstkammer, Vienna, is an independent scholar renowned for her studies of North Italian bronzes of the 16th and 17th centuries. Dimitrios Zikos, Florence, an independent scholar is renowned for his knowledge of the Florentine archives from c. 1550 to1740; he has curated many exhibitions at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
Edited by Patricia Wengraf
Hardback, 320 x 240 mm
376 pages, 250 colour illustrations
ISBN: 978 1 907372 63 6Contributors
Patricia Wengraf with contributions from Denise Allen, Claudia Kryza-Gersch, Dimitrios Zikos and Rupert Harris
In the press
"This is a sensational show. The collectors Janine and J. Tomilson Hill share a taste for perfection, for historically important, big-statement bronzes in exceptional condition. The 33 works they have acquired since the early 1990s – all on view – include nothing in the way of fragments, damaged pieces or the odd amuse-bouche"—The New York Times
"The outstandingly lavish and learned exhibition catalogue by Patricia Wengraf may run up to 375 pages, but contains a mere 32 entries – it is both extremely choice and highly focused"—Apollo Magazine