Marble Bust Of Apollo - Veneto, Late 17th-early 18th Century

Son of Jupiter and Leto, twin brother of Diana, the god Apollo is represented wearing a crown of laurels, dressed in an antique drape held by a cord revealing his left shoulder. An idealized young man par excellence, Apollo keeps in the iconographic tradition this youthful and dazzling character of the Greek god, embodying ideal beauty assimilated in particular to the sun and harmony. The bust, of modest size, smaller than life, was originally intended to be part of a set composed of one or more busts with a mythological theme which responded to it. It presents all the formal characteristics of works from aristocratic circles in the Venice region at the turn of the 18th century. The presence of the knot on the chest is a formula that we find in particular in the creations of the Masters Orazio Marinali (1643-1720), Giovanni Bonazza (1656-1736), or even Enrico Meringo (1638 -1723). The youthful face, full, with delicate features and a fleshy mouth, also belongs to the Venetian tradition as we can see for example in the bust of Young Man Laureate by Giusto le Court (1627-1679), preserved at the Kunsthistorishes Museum from Vienna. On a technical level, the care in polishing the marble as well as the material effects on the hair and drapery offer a fine example of the art of the decorative and secular bust of a Venetian palace. Finally, the style and typology of our Apollo are identical to another bust that appeared in 2010 on the art market, also representing the God of the arts (Sotheby's September 7).