In her essay “The Status of ‘Signatures’ found on Giambologna’s Marbles and Bronzes. What do they imply?”, Patricia Wengraf has adopted a fresh approach to the study of Giambologna’s sculpture.

Wengraf’s essay tests the notion that Giambologna’s bronze statuettes bearing inscribed or engraved ‘signatures’ should be regarded either as autograph works or the prime version. Through scrutiny of the signatures themselves, all of which are illustrated, the survey challenges long-held beliefs about the chronology and status of a number of the most famous bronzes by this great sculptor.

The article appears in German in the catalogue of the exhibition Giambologna. Triumph des Körpers, which took place at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (27 June – 17 September 2006). Wengraf also contributed entries in this catalogue for Giambologna’s Fata Morgana, Sleeping Nymph, Astrology, Mars and Astronomy.

These texts are also available on request in English. For further information, please email pat@wengraf.com with your name and contact details.

  
Giambologna, Nessus and Deianira
(detail showing signature),
San Marino, Huntington Library and Art Gallery
(inv. no. 17.13). Author's photo.
 
       

Illustrated is a detail of Giambologna's Mars from the Quentin Collection (cat. no. 10).
Cast before 1577, probably by Fra Domenico Portigiani. Bronze, height 39.6 cm		 European Bronzes from the Quentin Collection, by Manfred Leithe-Jasper and Patricia Wengraf, accompanied an exhibition held solely at the Frick Collection, New York, from 28 September 2004 until 2 January 2005.

This is a lavishly illustrated, meticulously researched catalogue of an important exhibition of nearly forty figurative sculptures, mainly bronzes from the 15th - 18th centuries. This fine collection of sculpture reveals the extraordinary invention and technical refinement characteristic of works made when the tradition of the European statuette was at its height.

Through a unique combination of academic's and dealer's expertise, this catalogue offers new insights into the study of European bronze statuettes, and benefits from many years' experience and connoisseurship in the field. While the authors' conclusions regarding attribution and dating coincide with only a few exceptions, their unusually frank exchanges make for a stimulating read.

The catalogue (ISBN 1 85149 472 3) is available internationally through specialist art bookshops and websites. It may also be purchased from the shop of the Frick Collection.
 
 
     
Patricia Wengraf
List of Publications

2009

Catalogue and Exhibition Review, “French bronzes, Renaissance to Revolution” edited by Geneviève Bresc-Bautier & Guilhem Scherf, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 22 October 2008 –19 January 2009, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 24 February – 24 May 2009, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 30 June – 27 September 2009, in The Burlington Magazine, February 2009, pp. 120-121.

  
2009  

Book Review, “Bertos: The Triumph of Motion” by Charles Avery, in The Burlington Magazine, November 2009, p. 780.

  
2006

Essay, “Zur Bedeutung der “Signaturen” an Giambolognas Marmor – und Bronzfiguren, in “Giambologna, Triumph des Körpers” exh. cat. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, 27 June – 17 September, 2006, pp. 103 – 139.

  
2006Catalogue entries in “Giambologna, Triumph des Körpers” exh. cat. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, 27 June – 17 September, 2006, Nos 1, 9, 10, 12 & 17.
  
1997
 Book and Exhibition Review, “Pajou. Sculpteur du Roi 1730-1809”, (Paris, Musée du Louvre, 20 October 1997 – 19 January 1998), Art Book Review Quarterly, Winter 1997/1998.
   
1995 Entry on Mercury and Cupid by Francesco Fanelli in Von allen Seiten schön. Bronzen der Renaissance und des Barock, exh. cat. ed. V. Krahn, Berlin, Altes Museum, 31 October 1995 – 28 January 1996, p. 410, no. 133.
   
1994 Entries and Biographies on Francesco Bertos (no. 59), Antonio Corradini (no. 58), Pietro Danieletti (no. 156), Orazio Marinali (nos 16, 17), Giovanni Maria Morlaiter (no. 178), in The Glory of Venice. Art in the Eighteenth Century, exh. cat. ed. J. Martineau and A. Robison, London, Royal Academy of Arts, 15 September – 14 December 1994, Washington DC, National Gallery of Art, 29 January – 23 April 1995.
   
1994 Book Review, C. Avery, “Donatello. Catalogo completo delle opere (I Gigli dell’Arte. Archivi di Arte e Moderna)”, (Florence, 1991), Art Book Review Quarterly, Spring, p. 2.
   
1993

Book Review, “Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum. 1540 to the Present Day”, Art Book Review Quarterly, Spring.

   
1992 Entries and Biographies on Francesco Fanelli (nos 128-131 & pp. 610-611), Kunst in der Republik Genua 1528-1815, exh. cat. Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle, 5 September – 8 November.
   
1992 “La Scultura e gli Oggetti d’Arte”, Fair Catalogue of Antiquariato Internazionale, Milan, April.
   
1991

Book Review, F. Barbieri, “Canova. Scultore Pittore Architetto a Possagno”, Art Book Review Quarterly, December.

   
1990 Letter to the Editor, Apollo, June, pp. 438-39.
   
1988 “Jan-Baptiste van Helderberghe as a Maker of Bronzes”, Burlington Magazine, no. 1029, vol. CXXX, December, pp. 913-915.