RELATED LITERATURE

D. Diemer, "Small bronzes by Hubert Gerhard: A Review od Recent Scholarship, in Small bronzes in the Renaissance,ed. ❀D. Pincus, Washington, Studies in the History of Ar⛦t, vol. 62, 2001, pp.195-209.

D. Diemer, HIbert Gerhard und Carlo di Cesare del Palagio: Bronzeplastiker des Spatrenaissance, 2 vols., Berlin, 2004

Several stylistic features link this pair of highly finished bronze statuettes to the work of Hubert Gerhard and his workshop. The signature details of his bronzes including the high foreheads, bold and furrowed brows, meticulously finished surfaces including the dainty facial features incorporating heavily lidded eyes , the articulated finger and toenails and finally the faceted folds and creases of the drapery are seen in the present pair of bronze figures. Compare a calvary group in the Vienna Schatzkammer of circa 1610 (Diemer,op.cit, cat.G22,pl.230-236) and another group on a private American collection circa 1605 (Diemer, op.cit.).

Gerhard was influential and had a large workshop in which star apprentices, like Hans Krumper, who became well-known sculptors in their own right, trained. His style spread across Europe quickly. Furthermore, Diemer notes Gerhard's role as a supplier of models for the finest goldsmiths whic😼h also fostered his distinctive style.

Gerhard was the first of the three great German sculptors who brought  Giambologna's courtly Mannerist style ⛄to the North. A Dutchman by birth, his highly productive and prominent career in Augsburg, Munich and Innsbruck as sculptor at the princely Habsburg courts, for the Fugger family and later for the Dukes of Bavaria, was first documented by the Christoph Fugger Altar which he began in 1581.