the breasts pierced for the flow of water.

The Cyril Humphris Collection, sold Sotheby's, New York, January 11, 1995, lot 137

The development of German fountain figures grew from an established sculptural tradition of fine bronze figures pierced for the flow of water. Inspired by Italian and French examples made for both civic and private use, there was a particularly rapid development of these figures in Germany in the latter half of the 16th century, with major centers of production in Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Innsbruck. Sculptors found an opportunity to create secular, decorative pieces during periods of iconoclasm. By this time most houses in affluent cities had running water, a development that promoted the creation of decorative means of water transport as well as the production of small table fountains.

Fountains are biblically tied to the Fountain of Life, and thus life,🌌 leisure, and love became common themes in their decoration. The present example depicts the ancient goddess of love, Venus, also mythologically born from water.

A relatively small group of fountain sculpture survives, as many examples were damaged from use, melted down for amꦚmunition🐎, or simply replaced as tastes changed.

RELATED LITERATURE
Jeffrey Chipps Smith, 'The Renaissance Fountain' in German Sculpture of the Later Renaissance c. 1520-1580. Art in an Age of Uncertainty, Princeton, 1994