The ''Rondanini Fawn'' is a marble sculpture by Flemish artist

François Duquesnoy François Duquesnoy or Frans Duquesnoy (12 January 1597 – 18 July 1643) was a Flanders, Flemish Baroque sculptor who was active in Rome for most of his career. His idealized representations are often contrasted with the more emotional character ...

. It is part of the collection at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The Rondanini Faun was built on an ancient torso, completed by Duquesnoy between 1625 and 1630. Duquesnoy's completion of antiques was acclaimed in Rome as 'absolutely perfect.' In 17th-century restoration of antique statues, the latter were often imbued with Baroque style by the contemporary sculptor who completed the opus. Albeit not excessively so, the Rondanini is no exception, its broad movement being proof thereof. Duquesnoy is known to have produced at least the limbs and the head for this figure, completing a severed torso with a faun tail. Duquesnoy's Faun takes its name from the Palazzo Rondanini in Rome, where it was once kept.

Sculpture

The restored statue was attributed to Duquesnoy by the latter's biographer,

Giovanni Pietro Bellori Giovanni Pietro Bellori (15 January 1613 – 19 February 1696), also known as Giovan Pietro Bellori or Gian Pietro Bellori, was an Italian painter and antiquarian, but, more famously, a prominent biographer of artists of the 17th century, equiva ...

. Duquesnoy's pupil,

Orfeo Boselli Orfeo Boselli, or ''Bosselli'', (1597–1667) was an Italian sculptor working in Rome. As with most Roman sculptors of the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, a great part of his commissioned work was in restoring and completing fragmentary ...

, attributed the statue to the ''Fiammingo''. In his ''Osservazioni'', in the chapter treating restoration, Boselli cited the Rondanini Faun as proof of Duquesnoy's skills in the practice. As reported by Estelle Lingo "Boselli described the figure as leaping, and the ondanini Faunis indeed represented in mid action, up on the toes of his right foot with his left foot lifted, both arms extended and head raised, as if he had just leapt and struck the cymbals he is holding." The broad movement of the faun is sign of the Baroque influence in Duquesnoy's day, an admirer of ''la maniere greca'', who in this instance (the restoration of a sculpture ancient per se) nonetheless allowed Baroque influence to permeate the statue. Duquesnoy provided at least the head and the limbs for this sculpture, originally a severed torso with a faun tail. The upper limbs are what conveys the broad movement of the figure. The ''Fiammingo'' completed this oeuvre for Alessandro Rondanini, and in fact the sculpture take its name from the Palazzo Rondanini in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

References

External links

Rondanini Faun at the British Museum official website

{{François Duquesnoy 1620s sculptures 1630s sculptures Statues in London Sculptures by François Duquesnoy Marble sculptures Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures in the British Museum

Sculpture

References

Further reading

External links