Profile of an Old Man with a Grotesque Head

Entry

Genre scenes in sculpture are rare, certainly when genre depictions concern members of the common class, as does the present relief bust. The man is depicted unflatteringly, with a deep-furrowed face, a wide, bulbous nose, a projecting lower jaw, and the mouth open revealing the teeth and tongue. Judging by the felt hat and the calfskin or horsehide cloak, the figure portrayed is probably a peasant. From the time of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), fantastical physiognomies of this type, rendered with unseemly facial proportions, were much-loved subjects of study for artists, particularly in a relatively inexpensive medium like drawing.³ In the eighteenth century, however, these highly exaggerated or even grotesque heads became a favoured subject for Kleinskulptur carved in ivory in Germany.⁴ This life-size version in costly white Carrara marble, a material typically reserved for portraits of princes and nobles, is highly exceptional. The farcical man appears in strict profile, portrayed much like an emperor from classical antiquity, comparable to Desiderio da Settignano’s (c. 1429-1464) famous marble profile of man with a laurel (Julius Caesar?).⁵ Works involving comedic role reversals and ridiculing artistic decorum were greatly valued by those in art-collecting circles.

The present relief has long been thought to be of Netherlandish origin, based on an 1804 account describing its discovery under the debris of an old house in the Dutch town of Velzen. In both the Southern and Northern Netherlands, the farcical genre enjoyed great popularity in the seventeenth century, as amply demonstrated by the success of renowned painters Adriaen Brouwer (1604-1638) and David Teniers II (1610-1690) and sculptors Pieter Xaveri (1647-1674, cf. BK-NM-5667) and Jan Pieter I van Bauerscheit (1669-1728, cf. BK-2006-19). Nevertheless, the style of the marble relief reflects nothing of these northern works, with corroboration instead found in the Venetian artistic tradition.⁶ It was in the Veneto of the late baroque era that sculptors like Giusto Le Court (born as Josse de Corte, 1627-1679), a Flanders native, and Giovanni Bonazza (1654-1736) and Orazio Marinali (1643-1720) – both presumed pupils of Le Court – produced numerous testi di carattere (heads of character), both in the round and in relief.⁷ One example, comparable in concept to the Amsterdam man and today preserved at the Museo Civico in Feltre, shows the profile of the grotesque head of a jovial, laughing peasant youth in high relief. This piece is attributed to Giacomo Cassetti (1682-1757), Marinali’s son-in-law who also worked in his studio.⁸ Despite the similarity in type, however, the Amsterdam man displays a greater naturalism and is more closely akin to the style of Marinali himself.

From 1666/67 on, Orazio Marinali stood at the head of a highly productive family workshop in Vicenza, where his younger brothers, Angelo and Francesco II, also worked. In addition to prestigious commissions for various churches, among them the Lamentation (1689) on the high altar of the Chiesa di San Vincenzo, the Marinali workshop was also responsible for garden sculptures and other decorative works, including a large number of busts with exaggerated facial features and caricatural heads executed in relief. Hughenden Manor (Buckinghamshire) holds in its collection an ensemble of five marble heads in profile attributed to Orazio Marinali, depicting men and women of varying age and temperament. These works are known to have belonged to a series comprising at least sixteen heads adorning a frieze that formerly lined the grand stairway of the Palazzo Grimani in Venice.⁹ In concept and style, these heads are comparable to the present profile of the old man in the Rijksmuseum, even if somewhat shallower in relief and finished with less refinement. More akin to the Amsterdam marble and possibly by the same hand is a masterful marble bust of an old man (or woman?) sculpted in the round that recently surfaced on the art market.¹⁰ Ascribed to Orazio Marinali’s circle, this piece shares the same subtle surface treatment, a similar wide-brimmed felt hat and fur collar, but also elements of the sculptor’s self-portrait (Museo Civico di Bassano) in pietra tenera, including the bald, round back of the head and the fleshy skin, executed in hard marble with great plasticity and true to life.¹¹ In short, an attribution of the lively Amsterdam relief to Marinali – or a talented sculptor in his immediate circle – appears sustainable.¹²

The present relief was quite conceivably accompanied by a pendant, such as an old peasant woman with her grotesque head facing right. Given the man’s pronounced expression of mirth, a peasant with a downcast facial expression is also a tenable pairing. In this case, the two reliefs may possibly be interpreted as a farcical version of the philosopher duo Democritus and Heraclitus – one jovial, the other mournful – a popular theme also inspiring numerous variations among Venetian sculptors during the late baroque era.¹³

Bieke van der Mark, 2024