Low Countries | Ca. 1700
Oval relief with Putti in a Circle Dance with a Dog
Ivory I Carved in high relief
H. 10.7 cm. W. 13.8 cm.
PROVENANCE
Anonymous sale | 25 June 1981 | Lot 136
European private collection
CITES CERTIFICATE
With CITES certificate issued by the Management Authority in The Hague | Dated 23-01-2025 | Nr. 25NL331825/20
REFERENCE LITERATURE
Scholten, F. (2020). ‘Die Welt des Jan van Delen: Erwägungen zur flämischen Elfenbeinschnitzerei des 17. Jahrhunderts’. In: Ruhmann, C. and P. Koch-Lütke Westhues, P. Museum als Resonanzraum: Kunst – Wissenschaft – Inszenierung: Festschrift für Christoph Stiegemann. Petersberg, pp. 342-353, pp. 348-349, figs. 8A and 8b
Scholten, F. (2025). ‘Circle of Gabriel Grupello and possibly Frans Langhemans, Putti in a Circle Dance with a Dog, c. 1700’. In: Scholten, F. and Mark B. van der, European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. 20078331
CATALOGUE NOTE
A small oval plaquette with a very finely sculptured scene showing four putti and a dog in a playful composition. This panel was part of a pair of plaquettes, the other of which showed four putti dancing and playing music. An all but identical plaquette and its pendant were sold by Galerie Kugel, Paris, in 1981, and are now part of the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (BK-2011-46-1 and BK-2011-46-2), where they are attributed to either the Flemish mastee Gabriel Grupello (1644-1730) or possibly Frans Langhemans (1661-1710).
Gabriel Grupello was a Flemish sculptor who primarily worked in Antwerp, Brussels and Düsseldorf and learned the sculptor’s art as an apprentice to Artus Quellinus. In the late seventeenth century, he set up shop in Düsseldorf. Grupello was made court sculptor by King Charles II of Spain, and also counted Emperor Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire, Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm II of Düsseldorf, King Louis XIV of France and Stadtholder William III of Orange Nassau (King William III of England) among his clients. From 1704 onwards, he resided at the Viennese court of Charles II and Charles VI, sculpting busts, statues and reliefs. Frans Langhemans was a Flemish sculptor who primarily undertook grand sculptural commissions for churches and public areas.