An Italian wax relief with Venus and Adonis - image-1
An Italian wax relief with Venus and Adonis - image-2
An Italian wax relief with Venus and Adonis - image-1An Italian wax relief with Venus and Adonis - image-2

Lot 557 Dα

An Italian wax relief with Venus and Adonis

Auction 1140 - overview Cologne
15.11.2019, 14:00 - Decorative Arts II
Estimate: 4.000 € - 6.000 €

An Italian wax relief with Venus and Adonis

A wax relief interpretation of Titian's famous painting. Inscribed in sepia ink to the reverse: "Adone e Venere, del Tiziano, Trasportata in cera colorita dal celebre D. Francesco Pieri nel 1761 - ". H 23.8, W 18.7 cm.
Francesco Pieri, 1761, after Titian.

Giovanni Francesco Pieri (Prato 1699-1773 Naples) began his artistic career at the Accademia del Disegno in Florence in 1727. Following an apprenticeship in the studio of the Florentine sculptor Gioacchino Fortini (1671 - 1736), he began taking on courtly commissions as a sculptor, model maker, and architect. The last Grand Duke Gian Gastone de' Medici was so impressed by his skills that he named him overseer of his tapestry manufactory in 1733.
Following the Grand Duke's death in 1737, Pieri left Florence and relocated to the court of Naples by appointment of Karl von Bourbon. He also became overseer of the tapestry manufactory in Naples and continued to work as a wax sculptor. He made wax portraits of various princes, as well as wax relief versions of famous paintings from the Bourbon Farnese collection in Naples and paintings depicting everyday life. An inventory of the Palazzo di Portici made around the year 1800 list 24 framed wax reliefs such as this one.

Literature

Cf. Gonzàlez-Palacios, Giovanni Francesco Pieri, in: Antologia di Belle Arti, I, 2, giugno 1977; ders.
Gonzàlez-Palacios, Le arti decorative e l’arredamento alla corte di Napoli: 1734-1805. Cere, in: Civiltà del ‘700 a Napoli 1734-1799, catalogo della mostra, Firenze 1979, vol. 2, p. 88, 529-531.
Cf. Lessmann/König-Lein, Wachsarbeiten des 16. bis 20. Jahrhunderts, Braunschweig 2002, p. 183.