Images(3)

Male Nude (David?)

Unidentified artist (Italian (Florence), mid-16th century)

mid-16th century

Object PlaceFlorence, Italy

Medium/TechniqueWax

DimensionsOverall (height including base): 83.8 cm (33 in.)

Credit LineGift of Elia Volpi, accepted as compensation

Accession number29.1085

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsSculpture

Collections

Europe

Description

Wax is a versatile modeling material that remains soft and can accommodate changes as the sculptor works. In the Renaissance, sculptors used wax to work out ideas for figures and compositions in small three-dimensional "sketches." This figure of a man retains a wire framework around which the wax was modeled; the wire, in turn, supported the wax. This piece may have served as a working model in preparation for a final sculpture in bronze or clay.

ProvenanceWilhelm von Bode; by 1924, Elia Volpi (b. 1858 - d. 1938), Florence [see note 1]; March 31 - April 2, 1927, Volpi sale, American Art Galleries, New York, not in catalogue, not sold [see note 2]; 1929, gift of Elia Volpi to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 5, 1929)

NOTES:
[1] See letter from Philip Gentner in Florence to Charles Henry Hawes of the MFA (September 25, 1924), which discusses the object along with others then in Volpi's possession, and a letter from Wilhelm von Bode to Elia Volpi (April 3, 1925) which discusses the object, stating specifically that it was in Volpi's possession at that time. [2] See Roberta Ferrazza, "Palazzo Davanzati e le collezioni di Elia Volpi" (Florence, 1994), pp. 130, 142, n. 177.