Featured Carved plaque...... V&A ......excitement!!!!

JMHO. if VA doesn't come to a conclusion, I'd contact the Italians directly in French or English. if it's an older expert then he certainly speaks French and all the younger ones speak excellent English these days.

 

No it's mercury gilded bronze, here are some pictures of it out of the frame s

 

Ah, so 'ormolu' is another search term.

 

When I spoke with the uni Giusti worked at as professor the communication was very hard, the person who we made contact with was ok but the person who she showed the photos to only replied in Italian but this is Google's translation
"
No trouble, at all.
The book you mention is actually a thesis, which is in an istitutional repository of our University. A colleague of mine had a look at it and this is his report:


The thesis shows that in the Siena municipal library there is an original manuscript, left by his wife in 1912 (Memoir of Memories), with 4 large books with over three hundred designs of decorative motifs made up to 1855 (Work studios: 4 large green books). The photocopy of one of these (Plate 140) is vaguely similar, representing a shield with a head of Medusa or Bacchus in the center. Other materials are in the archive of the Art School of Siena (formerly the Art Institute).

The original design could be in that manuscript.

[...] The technique of ornamentation in that historical moment, but up to years very close to us, includes a standardized and widespread language, and could be a work of school."
I didn't want to press them as all what they had done was out of the goodness of their heart

 

In the answer I posted below from the uni they mention "representing a shield with a head of Medusa or Bacchus in the center" I think the whole piece was made altogether, I've seen another Giusti with an ivory centre that looks as though it was all made as one piece as well

 

Expect you know it is not Medusa. Could be Dionysus/Bacchus, but think more likely a follower, a maenad/bacchante.

 

Medusa is at the bottom of the carving and the bronze is a female version of Bacchus?

 

Follower of.



Your girl has a surprisingly art nouveau quality to her.

 

Agree.

Considering there were many carvers working at the same time (and in the years following) in the same style, and with access to the the same hardware as Giusti, it must be determined what there is about this work that can definitively identify it as Giusti.

Even the V&A doesn't attribute a piece they own as a definite Giusti so it seems unlikely they'd give you more than an opinion that your piece is "in the style of".
"The Museum purchased this frame as a new item in 1861, to provide an example of modern Italian carving. Although the maker is not known, it bears many similarities with the work of Luigi Frullini in Florence, and of the studios of Angelo Lombardi and Pietro Giusti in Sienna."

To me, Google's translatation makes it sound like this person is saying that similarly styled stuff has been carved from Giusti's time period through to recent times and that your piece could be any one of those.

It will be down to whether or not it's in that list of his works that you mention, I suppose.

BTW, it's gorgeous!!

Disclaimer: This is the inexpert opinion of someone who just did a bit of googling on the subject, LOL.

 

I totally agree, just like art all over the world there are fakes and school works that look like the originals and it's very hard to tell then apart. What makes me think it's by Giusti is parts of my carving are reproduced in other known works by him and not by any other carver, on first glance many works from that time and place look the same but up close they are very different. Take the V&A's plaque, it's not by Giusti, Giusti would have never left the tails of the dragons just stippled, like mine he would have carved tiny scales, the heads of the dragons are wrong and there is a whole list of differences. I suppose you really need to download detailed photos so you can zoom in to the fine detail, my photos don't help as I have a pants camera and I have to compress the files to post them. It would take me all day to write the things I've noticed and comparisons I made over the years but I'm very happy to be proved wrong as this journey isn't about proving it's by one carver it's about finding out who carved it.

 

Like bluumz, I've Googled around a bit in connection with this thread & it does strike me that the level of detail, of carving every surface, shown by yours exceeds that of most other examples of the type. Definitely the work of a master. Wonder if he would have done the original carving that led to the medallion.

 

It's a fabulous piece and I don't really have anything to add to this conversation, but I so understand that drive to know "who".

 

TBH I don't really know but I assume because he was a carver in wood I can't see why he wouldn't have been able to carve the wax for the lost wax casting in bronze.

 

If you go by the way the dragons mouths are in both pics is just one example why I think mine might be by him

 

Trying to compare creatures. Difficult from photos alone.





The ones on the Met's box have leonine heads with horns. The feathers of the wings are indicated mainly by shaping the lower edge to echo the grape leaves. There's a loop in the tail. Being imaginary creatures, no reason they can't all be different. The way the wings are rendered may be a telltale sign. Having looked at many winged figures on cameos, have seen there are all sorts of ways to feather them, & suspect technique of each carver probably distinctive.

 

Size has a lot to do with it but certain figures seem to be carved in a certain way, if I get time tonight I'll try and post bits of my carving against bits of known work by him. I will admit it's very hard to show because I can move my 3D carving around when I'm comparing against photos but to show it I will need to take photos from that angle

 

That's it exactly. Critter on the other corner appears to be aquiline, again with horns. Does your Medusa have horns? Sometimes I see her with, other times, without.