NEW YORK.- The Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University possesses one of the finest collections of Renaissance and Baroque bronzes in Great Britain, and this February a group of thirty-six of them will be seen for the first time together in America in a presentation at New York’s Frick Collection. Dating from the turn of the sixteenth century to the early years of the eighteenth century — the period that saw the flowering of the bronze statuette as an independent art form — the sculptures are remarkable for their exquisite beauty and refinement. Many of the works in the exhibition are from the collection bequeathed to the Fitzwilliam Museum by the sister of Lieutenant Colonel Mildmay Thomas Boscawen, an explorer, naturalist, and botanist, who owned large plantations in East Africa. Included are masterpieces by such renowned Italian Renaissance and Baroque sculptors as Vincenzo Grandi and Alessandro Algardi, as well as outstanding bronzes by Netherlandish, German, and French masters, which are rare among the Frick’s predominantly Italian holdings. Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, seen in conjunction with the Frick’s permanent collection, will provide visitors with a rare opportunity to explore the depth and range of European bronze sculpture. Presentation of the exhibition in New York is made possible, in part, through the generous support of Peter and Sofia Blanchard, Lawrence and Julie Salander, and The Helen Clay Frick Foundation, with additional support from the Fellows of The Frick Collection. It is being coordinated for the Frick by its Associate Curator Denise Allen and is accompanied by a catalogue and public lecture.

Comments by Director Anne L. Poulet, “This presentation is the third in a series of remarkable exhibitions at the Frick highlighting the bronze statuette, beginning with the 2003 exploration of the oeuvre of Willem van Tetrode, followed in 2004 with the unveiling of the distinguished Quentin collection. With each, we hope to have encouraged the general and scholarly public to take a renewed look at an art form that inspired the most talented Renaissance and Baroque sculptors. Furthermore, given that our own bronzes–on view throughout the Frick mansion–offer a sense of Henry Clay Frick’s personal taste, we are particularly pleased to present the Fitzwilliam works assembled by Colonel Boscawen as yet another compelling chapter in the collecting history of the medium.”

Lieutenant Colonel Boscawen (1892–1958), a younger son of the 7th Viscount Falmouth, was educated at Eton and then Trinity College, Cambridge. After distinguishing himself in the First World War, he moved to Tanganyika and ran a successful business producing sisal hemp near Moa. A renowned explorer, naturalist, and botanist, Boscawen became an avid collector of sculpture, favoring bronze over any other medium because of its resilience to the African climate. His real love was medals, plaquettes and statuettes from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods, which he acquired from the London art market through the agency of trusted dealers who sometimes sent bronzes to Africa for Boscawen’s approval. The surviving correspondence reveals Boscawen to have been a most discerning collector, whose exacting tastes earned him a reputation as a connoisseur. Because he was desirous of having nothing but the best, he constantly refined his collection.

Self-effacing to a fault and very reticent, Boscawen has remained an obscure figure until recently, when a significant portion of his collection of bronzes, and several other works of art, entered the permanent collections of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Now, thanks to the rediscovery of more than forty letters that Boscawen wrote to his dealers in London, a wealth of new information has emerged about his activities as a collector and, at long last, the full scope and scale of his remarkable collection may be appreciated.

The Fitzwilliam’s Perfume Burner, the Lid with a Funerary Genius is an example of the exquisite functional bronzes produced by the uncle-nephew team of Vincenzo and Gian Girolamo Grandi, who worked in sixteenth-century Renaissance Padua and Trent. Such pieces were highly valued accoutrements to the studies of noble and humanist patrons. Although many examples — primarily candlesticks and bells — from the Grandi shop survive, very few can be attributed solely to the hand of these masters. The Fitzwilliam exhibition will reunite two of their greatest works, the Perfume Burner and The Frick Collection’s exquisite Hand Bell, which the bronze scholar Willem von Bode called, “the most beautiful bell in all the world.” Both bronzes are characterized by the extraordinary sharpness of their casting, which allows decorative elements such as swags, ribbons, and escutcheons to stand out in crisply syncopated rhythm. The Perfume Burner and Hand Bell represent pinnacles of luxurious artistry in bronze, a material praised in the Renaissance for its ability to withstand the ravages of time. Emphasizing that the human condition is otherwise, the Grandi crowned each bronze with a bittersweet reminder of life’s transience: the putto on the Perfume Burner is shown dousing life’s torch, while his counterpart on the Hand Bell is seated on a skull, visible only when viewing the bell from behind.