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"Caryatids, " Important, Rare Bronze by Oscar Bach

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  • Art Deco Compote with Nude Male Caryatids, Oscar Bach Bronze with Lustre Glass
    By Oscar Bruno Bach
    Located in Philadelphia, PA
    Stunning in design and execution, this large Art Deco compote is composed of a bronze base featuring a group of nude male caryatids supporting a gorge...
    Category

    Vintage 1920s American Art Deco Centerpieces

    Materials

    Bronze

  • "Zodiac Box, " Lidded Art Deco Bronze Casket with Zodiac Symbols by Oscar Bach
    By Oscar Bruno Bach
    Located in Philadelphia, PA
    Beautifully cast and finished with a lovely, lustrous patina, this bronze lidded box depicts all 12 of the Zodiac symbols -- four on the lid and two ...
    Category

    Vintage 1920s American Art Deco Decorative Boxes

    Materials

    Bronze

  • "Girl and Goose, " Rare Pair of Art Deco Bronze Bookends by Bach
    By Oscar Bruno Bach
    Located in Philadelphia, PA
    Beautifully detailed, with a gorgeous deep patina, this rare pair of bronze bookends by Oscar Bach depict girls holding geese by the neck, like something out of a charming nursery rh...
    Category

    Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Bookends

    Materials

    Bronze

  • Rare Bronze and Mica Lamp by Oscar Bach, with Grape and Mask Motif
    By Oscar Bruno Bach
    Located in Philadelphia, PA
    This domed bronze and mica lamp, a rare form, was crafted by the studios of Oscar Bach, America's foremost metal craftsman in the 1920s and 1930s. Bach, who immigrated to America from Germany, settled in New York City, and there he created a dizzying array of lamps, tables, candlesticks, decorative panels and other pieces that ornamented some of America's finest theaters, homes and public buildings, including Radio City Music Hall. The lamp is stamped "Oscar B Bach...
    Category

    Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Table Lamps

    Materials

    Bronze

  • "Leaping Stag Bowl, " Rare Art Deco Bowl with Sculptural Relief by Oscar Bach
    By Oscar Bruno Bach
    Located in Philadelphia, PA
    One of the most iconic, though rare, pieces ever made by Oscar Bach, this bowl features an iconic leaping stag in high Art Deco style, executed in a silvery aluminum finished in a subtly iridescent glaze. This bowl, and a series of rare chargers in the same series, were molded in an enormous hydraulic press by the Sterling Bronze company for Bach. The artist was, along with Samuel Yellin, one of America's premier metalworkers in the 1920s and 1930s. He crafted enormous metal sculptures designed by Hildreth...
    Category

    Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Decorative Bowls

    Materials

    Aluminum

  • "Bar Cabinet w/ Forest Motif", Art Deco Masterwork w/ Bronze Mounts, Oscar Bach
    By Oscar Bruno Bach
    Located in Philadelphia, PA
    One of the greatest masterpieces ever created by Oscar Bach -- who made the enormous sculptural rondels on the facade of Radio City Music Hall designed by Hildreth Meière...
    Category

    Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Dry Bars

    Materials

    Bronze

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  • Oscar Bach Style Neoclassical Footed Bronze Censer
    By Oscar Bruno Bach
    Located in South Bend, IN
    A gorgeous Neoclassical style bronze censer featuring lion heads and paw feet In the manner of Oscar Bach USA, Mid-20th Century Measures: 5.5"W x 5.5"D x 12.25"H. Very go...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century American Neoclassical Urns

    Materials

    Bronze

  • Rare and important painted bronze Crucifix after a model by Michelangelo
    By Michelangelo Buonarroti
    Located in Leesburg, VA
    A rare and very fine bronze corpus of Christ after a model by Michelangelo, cast ca. 1597-1600 by Juan Bautista Franconio and painted in 1600 by Francisco Pacheco in Seville, Spain. The present corpus reproduces a model attributed to Michelangelo. The best known example, lesser in quality, is one on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET). The association of this corpus with Michelangelo was first brought to light by Manuel Gomez-Moreno (1930-33) who studied the wider circulated casts identified throughout Spain. The attribution to Michelangelo was subsequently followed by John Goldsmith-Phillips (1937) of the MET and again by Michelangelo expert, Charles de Tolnay (1960). While Michelangelo is best known for his monumental works, there are four documented crucifixes he made. The best known example is the large-scale wooden crucifix for the Church of Santa Maria del Santo Spirito in Florence, made in 1492 as a gift for the Prior, Giovanni di Lap Bicchiellini, for allowing him to study the anatomy of corpses at the hospital there. In 1562, Michelangelo wrote two letters to his nephew, Lionardo, indicating his intention to carve a wooden crucifix for him. In 1563 a letter between Lionardo and the Italian sculptor Tiberio Calcagni, mentions this same crucifix (a sketch of a corpus on the verso of a sheet depicting Michelangelo’s designs for St. Peter’s Basillica [Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille] may reproduce this). That Michelangelo was working on small corpora in the last years of his life is further evidenced by the small (26.5 cm) unfinished wooden crucifix located at the Casa Buonarroti, considered his last known sculptural undertaking. Michelangelo’s contemporary biographer, Giorgio Vasari additionally cites that Michelangelo, in his later years, made a small crucifix for his friend, Menighella, as a gift. Surviving sketches also indicate Michelangelo’s study of this subject throughout his career, most notably during the end of his life but also during the 1530s-40s as he deepened his spiritual roots. The occasional cameo of crucified Christ’s throughout his sketched oeuvre have made it challenging for scholars to link such sketches to any documented commissions of importance. All the while, in consideration that such objects were made as gifts, it is unlikely they should be linked with commissions. Nonetheless, a number of theories concerning Michelangelo’s sketches of Christ crucified have been proposed and some may regard the origin of the present sculpture. It has been suggested that the corpus could have its impetus with Michelangelo’s work on the Medici Chapel, whose exclusive design was given to the master. It is sensible smaller details, like an altar cross, could have fallen under his responsibility (see for example British Museum, Inv. 1859,0625.552). Others have noted the possibility of an unrealized large marble Crucifixion group which never came to fruition but whose marble blocks had been measured according to a sheet at the Casa Buonarroti. A unique suggestion is that Michelangelo could have made the crucifix for Vittoria Colonna, of whom he was exceedingly fond and with whom he exchanged gifts along with mutual spiritual proclivities. In particular, Vittoria had an interest in the life of St. Bridget, whose vision of Christ closely resembles our sculpture, most notably with Christ’s proper-left leg and foot crossed over his right, an iconography that is incredibly scarce for crucifixes. The suggestion could add sense to Benedetto Varchi’s comment that Michelangelo made a sculpted “nude Christ…he gave to the most divine Marchesa of Pescara (Vittoria Colonna).” Of that same period, two sketches can be visually linked to our sculpture. Tolnay relates it to a sketch of a Crucified Christ at the Teylers Museum (Inv. A034) of which Paul Joannides comments on its quality as suggestive of preparations for a sculptural work. Joannides also calls attention to a related drawing attributed to Raffaello da Montelupo copying what is believed to be a lost sketch by Michelangelo. Its relationship with our sculpture is apparent. Montelupo, a pupil of Michelangelo’s, returned to Rome to serve him in 1541, assisting with the continued work on the tomb of Pope Julius II, suggesting again an origin for the corpus ca. 1540. The earliest firm date that can be given to the present corpus is 1574 where it appears as a rather crudely conceived Crucifixion panel, flanked by two mourners in low-relief and integrally cast for use as the bronze tabernacle door to a ciborium now located at the Church of San Lorenzo in Padula. Etched in wax residue on the back of the door is the date, 27 January 1574, indicating the corpus would have at least been available as a model by late 1573. The Padula tabernacle was completed by Michelangelo’s assistant, Jacopo del Duca and likely has its origins with Michelangelo’s uncompleted tabernacle for the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in Rome. The impetus for the Padula tabernacle’s Crucifixion panel begins with a series of late Crucifixion sketches by Michelangelo, depicting a scene of Christ crucified and flanked by two mourners (see British Museum Inv. 1895.0915.510; Ashmolean Museum Inv. 1846.89, KP II 343 recto; Windsor Castle RCIN 912761 recto; and Louvre Inv. 700). A faintly traced block possibly intended for sculpting the sketch of the crucified Christ on its recto was discovered by Tolnay on a version of the composition at Windsor Castle. The Windsor sketch and those related to it appear to have served as preparatory designs for what was probably intended to become the Basilica of St. Mary’s tabernacle door. Vasari documents that the project was to be designed by Michelangelo and cast by his assistant, Jacopo del Duca. Michelangelo died before the commission was complete, though on 15 March 1565, Jacopo writes to Michelangelo’s nephew stating, “I have started making the bronze tabernacle, depending on the model of his that was in Rome, already almost half complete.” Various circumstances interrupted the completion of the tabernacle, though its concept is later revitalized by Jacopo during preparations to sell a tabernacle, after Michelangelo’s designs, to Spain for Madrid’s El Escorial almost a decade later. The El Escorial tabernacle likewise encountered problems and was aborted but Jacopo successfully sold it shortly thereafter to the Carthusians of Padula. An etched date, 30 May 1572, along the base of the Padula tabernacle indicates its framework was already cast by then. A 1573 summary of the tabernacle also describes the original format for the door and relief panels, intended to be square in dimension. However, a last minute decision to heighten them was abruptly made during Jacopo’s negotiations to sell the tabernacle to King Phillip II of Spain. Shortly thereafter the commission was aborted. Philippe Malgouyres notes that the Padula tabernacle’s final state is a mixed product of the original design intended for Spain’s El Escorial, recycling various parts that had already been cast and adding new quickly finished elements for its sale to Padula, explaining its unusually discordant quality, particularly as concerns the crudeness of the door and relief panels which were clearly made later (by January 1574). Apart from his own admission in letters to Spain, it is apparent, however, that Jacopo relied upon his deceased master’s designs while hastily realizing the Padula panels. If Michelangelo had already earlier conceived a crucifix model, and Jacopo had access to that model, its logical he could have hastily employed it for incorporation on the door panel to the tabernacle. It is worth noting some modifications he made to the model, extending Christ’s arms further up in order to fit them into the scale of the panel and further lowering his chin to his chest in order to instill physiognomic congruence. A crude panel of the Deposition also follows after Michelangelo’s late sketches and is likewise known by examples thought to be modifications by Jacopo based upon Michelangelo’s initial sculptural conception (see Malgouyres: La Deposition du Christ de Jacopo del Duca, chef-d’oeuvre posthume de Michel-Ange). Jacopo’s appropriation of an original model by Michelangelo for more than one relief on the Padula tabernacle adds further indication that the crucifix was not an object unique to Jacopo’s hand, as few scholars have posited, but rather belongs to Michelangelo’s original...
    Category

    Antique 16th Century Renaissance Figurative Sculptures

    Materials

    Bronze

  • Important Bronze by Jean Vassil
    Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
    Bronze sculpture by Jean Vassil, light brown patina The lioness and her cub, 20th century H: 23 cm, W: 73 cm, D: 47 cm.
    Category

    Late 20th Century French Animal Sculptures

    Materials

    Bronze

  • Important Bronze "Workhorse" by Raymond de Meester
    By Raymond De Meester De Betzenbroeck
    Located in Altwies, LU
    Patinated bronze representing a workhorse in full effort signed on the terrace "Raymond de Meester" (Raymond de Meester de Betzenbroeck 1904-1995) Baron Raymond de Meester de Betz...
    Category

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    By Gerhard Henning
    Located in Aalsgaarde, DK
    Very important bronze statue signed by Gerhard Henning. He is considered to be one of greatest Danish artists and is represented in many Danish museums, including "Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek" where he's bronze sculpture are exhibited together with degas sculptures...
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    Early 20th Century Danish Figurative Sculptures

  • Pair of Art Deco Oscar Bach Silvered Iron Candlesticks
    By Oscar Bruno Bach
    Located in West Palm Beach, FL
    Pair of Art Deco Oscar Bach silvered iron candlesticks Oscar Bruno Bach (1884 - 1957) USA, Circa 1930s Each candlestick is a fine example of Oscar Bach's innovative Art Deco design, These candlesticks show influences of Addison Mizner, the noted Palm Beach architect and furniture designer. Each candlestick has a three inch diameter 'pricket' bobeche, supported on a octagonal channeled column with incised decoration, raised on squared octangular pierced fretwork based raised on four stylized paw feet. Each candlestick is signed in script 'Oscar B Bach...
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    20th Century American Art Deco Candlesticks

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