the heavily draped female figure with a crown of wheat and holding a suckling child in her left arm, another child at her back weaping and clutching her drapery.

Sold Sotheby's London, July 8, 2003, lot 134

RELATED LITERATURE

S. Asche, Balthasar Permoser, Berlin 1978, nos. 126-129, 151, 192.

Weathering and some losses throughout. Some parts of the leaves in her crown and two fingers of rear putto's hands are lacking. There are various areas of restoration throughout including: parts of her arms (her right arm is replaced), the dangling back leg of the front putto has a restored break, and there is some restoration on his forward leg. Some restoration in his proper right arm. The youth on the back has a forward leg that has been significantly restored down to the foot. The heel of her proper left foot seems to have some restoration. Some small areas of windswept drapery and the area between her legs below her knees have been restored. The base has been lifted (added to). The sculpture has been restored well. It has also been vigorously cleaned. The color of the stone is grayish rather than the yellow tone seen in the catalogue illustration.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Sigfred Asche in his important study of Balthasar Permoser discusses and illustrates several groups of Charity, in marble and sandstone, by this famous Dresden court sculptor to Augustus the Strong, King of Saxony. The first of those groups, dating from 1711/1712, is from the tomb of Princess Lichtenburg in the Freiberg Cathedral (Asche, op.cit., pl.192) and was commissioned by the king for his mother. The present sculpture is closely related to this group in overall composition, the inclusion of the weaping child at her feet, Permoser's singular facial type and his depiction of drapery. Here, the artist repeats the oval-form face with large eyes, centered by a broad nose with a straight bridge. The drapery is not naturalistic but rather takes on a life of its own: moving, clinging, floating and curling at every angle. The woman's head, in the present group, further echoes one of the sculptor's best known figures, that of Ceres, dating fro🎃📖m 1714-15, carved in sandstone and placed on the façade of the Zwinger in Dresden.

After an important period in Italy from 1675 to 1690 where he gained a profound knowledge of the Italian baroque, Permoser returned to his native Ge🦄rmany where he worked in a variety of materials. He produced exquisite small-scale carvings in ebony, ivory and other precious materials for the court (now in the Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden). At the same time, he and his workshop were employed on numerous large scale carvings in both marble and stone for the palaces in and around the Saxon capital.