After Giambologna

After "GIAMBOLOGNA", JEAN DE BOLOGNE (Douai, Flanders, 1529 - Florence, 1608). Italy, 19th century.
"Mercury."
Sculpture in patinated bronze.
Marble pedestal.
It has lost part of the caduceus.
Measurements: 84 cm (total height with pedestal).

The work, from the neoclassical period, follows the model of the original sculpture of the Renaissance artist Jean de Bologne, better known by the Italianized form of his name, "Giambologna", now preserved in the Bargello Museum in Florence. The present version also has a frieze on the pedestal that did not exist in the Flemish sculpture. The original piece, originally made in 1567, presents the classical divinity Mercury (Roman version of the Greek Hermes), the messenger of the gods. The artist has sought to translate the lightness and speed of the character through a posture of great audacity. The god defies the laws of gravity by leaning only on the tips of the toes of his left foot, which barely touches the base of the sculpture, which consists of a male head exhaling a breath of air. This is the personification of the south wind, a figure also deified in classical mythology and Mercury's ally in the propagation of news, good and bad. Despite this reduced base, the artist managed to create a very balanced piece, where the gestures of the arms and legs are perfectly balanced to allow the bronze to support itself without the need for added elements. Thus, the right arm rises towards the sky in an expressive gesture, while the left arm moves back and balances it, holding the herald's emblematic rod. With this work, brimming with movement, grace and delicacy, where the artist also works admirably with the nude, some of the most outstanding contributions of the classical Italian Renaissance are summarized: the recovery of Antiquity, both in themes and forms, the monumental free-standing sculpture or the nude, male and female. On the other hand, the search for movement, dynamism, even the instability of the figure, prelude some aspects of Mannerism and the Baroque trends of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.