Carrying a high estimate of £500,000 a bronze work after Giambologna fetched 2,393,250 GBP in a sale held by Sotheby's on July 9th 2008.
ITALIAN, FLORENCE, 18TH CENTURY
AFTER A MODEL BY GIAMBOLOGNA (1529-1608)
A BRONZE GROUP OF HERCULES AND THE CENTAUR
Estimate: 300,000—500,000 GBP
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 2,393,250 GBP
measurements note
40cm.; 15 3/4 in.
CATALOGUE NOTE
Giambologna produced wax models for six of the Labours of Hercules to be cast in silver for the Tribuna of the Uffizi, Florence, of which Hercules slaying the centaur was the first to be cast in silver by 1577 and certainly known to the silversmith Michele Mazzafirri by 1588. The composition was used again in his monumental marble of 1594-99 in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence. The earliest unequivocal reference to a bronze version is the 1609 inventory for Lorenzo Salviati, cast by Antonio Susini which is most probably the small-scale bronze example in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Both the marble and bronze must reflect Giambologna's original silver model of 1576 which is now missing.
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