A BRONZE STANDING BULL

Flemish, late 17th Century

Bronze, 11 ¼  x 17 ½ in. (28.5 x  44.5 cm), mounted on a green veined marble plinth,
height 4 ¾ in. (12 cm). 

Model of a bull standing with head raised and bellowing, his tail curling around his rear hocks. The eyes, mouth and hair between the horns are well defined. The original model has been attributed to the Antwerp sculptor Artus Quellinus (1609 - 1668), circa 1640, whose style was influenced by Peter Paul Rubens. Subsequent casts were generated by later generations of the Quellinus family.

It was suggested that the bronze exists in as many as eleven known casts, but it is not clear whether this number represents an actual census: Probably the primary version, a cast with integral footplates and touched with remnants of gilding, is kept in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (inv. R3232).  In 1923, the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum deaccessioned another almost equally fine example also with footplates and traces of gilding, which subsequently passed through Amsterdam collections into the Rijksmuseum in 1952 (inv. BK.16944). The present example from the distinguished collection of Paul Wallraf, is from the 17th century, albeit later than these first two. Another similar second-generation cast formerly in the Camillo Castiglioni collection, Vienna, may be the one, which passed into the Nelson A. Rockefeller collection.  A third second-generation cast passed though Sotheby's, April 2, 1985, lot 115, and Christie Manson & Woods, April 11, 1990, lot 125.

Provenance:
David Peel & Co., 1965;
Paul Wallraf Collection;.

Bibliography:
From Riccio to Clodion, exh. cat., David Peel & Co., London, 1965, no. 20.

Related Literature:
Avery, Victoria and Dillon, Jo, Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the FitzwilliamMuseum, Cambridge, exh. Cat., The Frick Collection, New York, 2005, and Daniel Katz Ldt., London, 2002, n.35, pp. 218-21 and 296-8.

Frederick Muller & Cie., Collection Camillo Castiglioni de Vienne, II.  Bronzes Antiques  et de la Renaissance, Amsterdam, 1925, p. 20, plate LXXXV.

Scholten, Frits, From Vulcan’s Forge: Bronzes from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1450-1700, exh. cat., Danny Katz Ltd, London, 2005, pp. 136-7, no. 43.

Leeuwenberg, Jaap and Haselma-Kubes, Willy, beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum,’s
Gravenhage, 1973, pp. 188.9, no. 240

Von Allen Seiten Schön: Bronzen der Renaissance und des Barock, exh. cat., Staatliche Museen, Berlin, 1995, pp. 532-3, no. 197.

Weihrauch, Hans R., Die Bildwerke in Bronze, Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 1956, p. 169, no. 208.

Weihrauch, Hans R, Europäische Bronzestatuetten, Braunschweig, 1967, p. 377 and fig. 457; see also p. 472 and fig. 558.