Thursday 10 December 2015

The Rysbrack Statuettes of Rubens, van Dyck and du Quesnoy, Part 19, The Bristol Terracotta Statuettes of van Dyck by Rysbrack.

The Terracotta Statuette of Anthony van Dyck
By Michael Rysbrack.
 
 
The Terracotta Statuette of Anthony van Dyck.
572 mm.
Inscribed ANTONIUS VAN DYCK EQUE.
The City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
 
Purchased by the gallery in 1957 from Mr H Ross of Bridgwater, who had acquired it locally.
 
This is not the original terracotta. Compared with the original terracotta of Rubens the definition and finish is not nearly as refined.
 
Katherine Eustace and Mary Greenacre in the Bristol Museums Catalogue of 1982 suggest that it was press moulded - that the clay is pressed into a plaster piece mould taken from the original terracotta, but this does not explain why it is lacking in definition. Close comparison with the lace collars on the terracotta of Rubens show much coarser modelling on the van Dyck, although the impressed mark on the back, which is not very well defined, rather like the Brussels Museum Rubens, shows that this statuette must have been moulded from an earlier original, perhaps a plaster.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rear view of the Bristol van Dyck with inscription ANTONIUS VAN DYCK EQUE.
 
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Details of the Collars of the Original Terracotta Rubens and the recast van Dyck.
 
 
Detail of the Collar of the Original Terracotta of Rubens by Michael Rysbrack.
 
 
 
Detail of the Collar of the Bristol Terracotta van Dyck.
 
 
 Detail of the Hagley Hall Marble Bust of van Dyck.
 
 
 
Detail of the Plaster van Dyck - Private Collection.
 
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Details of Inscribed Signatures.
 
 
 
Incised Signature on the Original Terracotta of Rubens.
 
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 Signature on the Bristol Terracotta of van Dyck showing the distinct lack of definition -
indicating that it is a cast of a cast.
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