""In these days the most famous modeller": this is how the Dutch sculptor Adriaen de Vries (1556-1626) was characterised in 1621. A virtuoso modeller, De Vries explored new ways to enliven his art. His bronze sculptures were made in a radically new, sketchy style, with free figure compositions and a vigorous treatment of human anatomy, often balancing on the border between realism and distortion. This book explores how and why a Late-Renaissance sculptor broke so drastically with the prevailing stylisticparadigm of his time, in search of vivezza, natural liveliness, and the viva figura, the statue on the brink of coming to life. Adriaen de Vries aimed to create sculptures that move in the metaphorical no-man's land between death and life, back and forthfrom inert bronze to apparent vitality, as this study will argue"-- Provided by publisher.
His sketchily modelled sculptures make Dutch sculptor Adriaen de Vries (1556-1621) an important trailblazer of the Baroque. This book explores the roots of De Vries's radical loose style and his bronzes on the brink of coming to life.
Contents
Preface
Prologue
List of Figures
1 Introduction: Turbulent Times, a Restless Life and a Dynamic Style
2 Orefice to sculptor nuovo
1 Stopover in Rome?
2Florence
3Disegno: the Craftsman Becomes an Artist
4Collaborations
5De Vries as Artist-Goldsmith
3Wax: ex caera formatas
1 Symbolic Notions
2Sculptors Wax
3Making the Modello
4Sketching in Wax: der meister erste hand
4 A Loose and Careless Style
1An Unorthodox and Exclusive Hand
2A Style for virtuosi
3quella esser vera arte, che non appare esser arte
5 Imperfetto and non-finito: Perfection in the Imperfect
6 Vivezza, Skin and Touch: between the Seen and Unseen
7 Pose and Movement: the viva figura
8 Turning the Farnese Bull
1Revolving Sculptures
2Turning and Modelling
3Molte vedute
4Machina, Movement and Theatricality
5Architecture, Lighting and Turning
9 Living Bronze
1Alchemy, Mining and Bronze Casting
2Resurrection
3Aus einem Guss
4Kunststücke machen
10 Epilogue: Plasticity, Movement, and the Loose Style as a Sign of
Modernity
1Painterliness
2Ein malerische Spätstil?
Notes
Bibliography
Frits Scholten (1959), Ph.D., is Senior Curator of Sculpture at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and holds the Chair of the History of Western Sculpture at the University of Amsterdam. He has published widely on Late Medieval and Early-Modern Sculpture.
