15.
florentine , 17th century giambologna ⁄ antonio susini (Follower of )
A Lion savaging a Bull 9¼ x 9 in. (23.5 x 23 cm)
A Lion savaging a Horse 9 x 11½ in. (25 x 29 cm) Bronze, rich golden red lacquer The models of a Lion attacking a Horse and a Lion attacking a Bull have to be considered together, for they were patently designed as a pair. No known example of either composition bears the signature of Giambologna, though several are signed by Antonio Susini, but they are both listed among his authentic models by Markus Zeh (1611) – “Un gruppo d’un lione ch’ammazo un cavallo”; “Un gruppo d’un lione ch’uccide un toro” – and by Baldinucci (1688) – “Il Cavallo ucciso dal Leone”; “Il Toro ucciso dal Tigre” (Dhanens 1956, pp. 73–74; p. 391). They also feature in Baldinucci’s list of statuettes cast by Gianfrancesco Susini after Giambologna’s models (ed. Ranalli, 1846, IV, p. 118); in this, later, context he should have said ‘a tiger’ with a bull, for two casts with this feline (spotted, not striped) exist, one in the Liechtenstein Collection and the other (discovered by the present writer) now in the Frick Collection, New York. The Lion attacking a Horse is freely derived from a full-scale but fragmentary Graeco-Roman prototype depicting the subject, which is now in the Garden of the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome (see London 1978, no. 174): the variations of the present model from this original in its current condition presumably reflect the difference between Giambologna’s ‘restoration’ of the missing heads and that of the sculptor who actually repaired the original in 1594. The Lion attacking a Bull is also derived from Graeco-Roman prototypes (see Sturgeon 1975–76). The two closely integrated compositions bear witness to Giambologna’s continuing fascination with ancient sculpture, as well as his awakening interest in animal subjects, once he had mastered the human form. In the absence of any signed primary examples of these bronzes, it is dangerous to be dogmatic about the various slightly different treatments of pose, detail and surface, as well as bases, which are to be found in different versions. The salient details on both groups, such as the incisions made by the lion’s claws in their victims’ hides, their dilated eyes and mane and the inside of the horse’s and bull’s open mouths, teeth, tongues and palates, are sharply rendered. On the other hand, the flowing hair on the lions’ manes, the tufts on the tips of their tails and the horse’s tail are left freely flowing, as cast, which serves to convey the effect of movement, as the animals thrash about in conflict. The mounds on which the animals are set are rough-cast, or only sporadically filed, so as to render the rough ground more naturally than had been the practice of Ferdinando Tacca or Gianfrancesco Susini, who treated them with lines of matt-punching in rather ornamental – but not at all life-like – patterns resembling more the whorls on a fingerprint. c.a. related literature M. Sturgeon, ‘A Hellenistic Lion-Bull Group in Oberlin’, Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin, XXXIII, 1975–76, pp. 28–43; C. Avery and A. Radcliffe, Giambologna, Sculptor to the Medici, exh. cat., Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1978, nos. 170–73
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