Pair of equestrian sculptures; Italy, Grand Tour, late 19th century.

Pair of equestrian sculptures; Italy, Grand Tour, late 19th century.
"Bartolomeo Colleoni and Gattamelata."
Patinated bronze and marble.
Measurements: 62 x 53 x 23 cm; 62 x 57 x 25 cm.
This pair of equestrian sculptures reproduces two of the most famous monuments of the Italian Renaissance: the Gattamelata by Donatello and the Bartolomeo Colleoni by Andrea del Verrocchio. Conceived as refined collector's items intended for travelers, scholars and lovers of classical art, these sculptural reductions testify to the enormous prestige that Renaissance masterpieces achieved in nineteenth-century European culture. During the 19th century, the Grand Tour made Italy an essential destination for aristocrats and collectors, who acquired these pieces as a cultured souvenir of their contact with the Italian artistic legacy.
Bartolomeo Colleoni's model is inspired by the monumental bronze created by Andrea del Verrocchio for the Campo di San Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, considered one of the summits of Renaissance equestrian sculpture for its extraordinary compositional energy and powerful military expression. For its part, the Gattamelata reproduces the famous statue created by Donatello for the Piazza del Santo in Padua, a fundamental work in the history of Western art as one of the first monumental equestrian sculptures cast in bronze since Antiquity. The revival of this format during the Renaissance symbolized the rediscovery of classical ideals and the humanist exaltation of the individual.
These cabinet versions retain the essential features of the originals: the restrained dynamism of the horses, the solemn dignity of the condotieros and the monumental balance of the compositions. The dark patina of the bronze and the marble bases reinforce their sculptural character and evoke the material nobility of the public models from which they derive. Beyond their decorative function, these pieces participated in a historicist culture that sought to transfer the great works of the European artistic tradition to the domestic sphere.
The relevance of this set also lies in its relationship with prestigious workshops and publishers of the late nineteenth century specialized in the reproduction of famous sculptures. An identical model of the Colleoni is known, although smaller, signed by the German sculptor Ludwig Eisenberger, active between 1895 and 1920, as well as a larger edition published by Boudet in Paris. In the case of the Gattamelata, there is a copy of the same size made by the foundry of Giorgio Sommer in Naples, one of the main distributors of Italian artistic reproductions for the international market.