Giovanni Battista Morelli (Rome, ? - Madrid, after
Giovanni Battista Morelli (Rome, ? - Madrid, después de 1665)
"Vanitas"
Polychromed and gilded terracotta sculpture.
Italian, disciple of Alessandro Algardi. Active in Paris until 1659, where he was in the service of the King of France. Later he went to Valencia, possibly through the patronage of the Duke of Montalto, as Fátima Halcón and Francisco J. Herrera García note in "Entre Sicila y España: nuevas aportaciones a la colección artística de Luis Guillermo de Montcada, Duque de Montalto (1614 - 1672)". (Between Sicily and Spain: new additions to Luis Guillermo de Montcada, Duke of Montalto´s art collection (1614 – 1672). In Valencia he worked in clay for the Vall de Crist Carthusian Monastery as well as working on private commissions. In 1661 he was named court sculpture for King Phillip IV of Spain, apparently through his friend Velázquez´s intervention. Later he also worked for Charles II. For them he made the stucco decorations for the ceilings and domes of Aranjuez Palace (Charles II´s office is still preserved) and for the Royal Fortress of Madrid, although here they were burnt in a fire in 1734. Among the royal collection, having survived the fire at the fortress, another “Child sleeping” is kept at the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid as a "memento mori".
There is a porcelain Saint John the Baptist kept in the Prado which is the only piece of his work that has arrived to the museum from among the artworks mentioned in the Royal inventories.
Morelli specialised in modelling with clay and stucco to an extremely high quality, his creations were then polychromed to the Spanish taste. The great fragility of these sculptures, as well as their small format, mean that very few examples of his work survive to this day as well preserved as this one.
24 x 50 x 29 cm.
Estimate
Time, Location
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Giovanni Battista Morelli (Rome, ? - Madrid, después de 1665)
"Vanitas"
Polychromed and gilded terracotta sculpture.
Italian, disciple of Alessandro Algardi. Active in Paris until 1659, where he was in the service of the King of France. Later he went to Valencia, possibly through the patronage of the Duke of Montalto, as Fátima Halcón and Francisco J. Herrera García note in "Entre Sicila y España: nuevas aportaciones a la colección artística de Luis Guillermo de Montcada, Duque de Montalto (1614 - 1672)". (Between Sicily and Spain: new additions to Luis Guillermo de Montcada, Duke of Montalto´s art collection (1614 – 1672). In Valencia he worked in clay for the Vall de Crist Carthusian Monastery as well as working on private commissions. In 1661 he was named court sculpture for King Phillip IV of Spain, apparently through his friend Velázquez´s intervention. Later he also worked for Charles II. For them he made the stucco decorations for the ceilings and domes of Aranjuez Palace (Charles II´s office is still preserved) and for the Royal Fortress of Madrid, although here they were burnt in a fire in 1734. Among the royal collection, having survived the fire at the fortress, another “Child sleeping” is kept at the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid as a "memento mori".
There is a porcelain Saint John the Baptist kept in the Prado which is the only piece of his work that has arrived to the museum from among the artworks mentioned in the Royal inventories.
Morelli specialised in modelling with clay and stucco to an extremely high quality, his creations were then polychromed to the Spanish taste. The great fragility of these sculptures, as well as their small format, mean that very few examples of his work survive to this day as well preserved as this one.
24 x 50 x 29 cm.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
