Lot 70: LUIGI BIENAIMÉ ITALIAN, 1795-1878 THE INFANT ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST

the banner inscribed: AGNUS. DEI

white marble

CATALOGUE NOTE

Although unsigned, this is a very fine quality carving of Bienaimé's well-known Infant St. John the Baptist. Another example, dated 1836, is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and a third version dated three years earlier appeared in these rooms as lot 62, 12 May 1995.

Bienaimé is best known as one of the most dedicated of Throvaldsen's assistants. His style was fundamentally influenced by the great Danish sculptor, but achieved a marked individuality by a certain degree of eclecticism. While Thorvaldsen's relief of the Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John, excecuted as part of a baptismal font in 1805-7, seems to be the starting point for Bienaimé's Infant St. John, one of the most striking sources for this figure is Michelangelo's masterpiece, The Risen Christ, 1519-20, in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome. Both works show a standing figure in contraposto and supporting a crucifix. Bienaimé in no way emulates Michelangelo's complex pose or wonderful anatomical treatment, but the slight twist to his figure and the fluid handling of the fleece do suggest that he was aware of this famous late Renaissance sculpture.

RELATED LITERATURE
Hubert, p.456; Hartmann, pp.99-108

115cm., 45 1/4 in.