Large bronze plaque with dark patina depicting... Lot 49

Large bronze plaque with dark patina depicting the Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia surrounded by four saints, based on a painting by Raphael circa 1515 in the Pinacoteca, Bologna (fig.a). The composition is fairly faithful to that of the painting, with Saints Paul, John the Evangelist, Augustine and Mary Magdalene framing the young saint holding a portable organ in both hands - an attribute often associated with her since the late Middle Ages - and the trophy of musical instruments in the foreground. The angelic concert in clouds has simply been moved closer to the heads of the figures. Italy, Rome, late 16th/early 17th century H. 24.2 - L. 17 cm Works consulted : - K. Peichstein, Bronzen und Plaketten, Kataloge des Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, Band III, Berlin, 1968, n. 282. - L. Martini, Piccoli bronzi e placchette del Museo nazionale di Ravenna, Ravenna, 1985-1986, cat.74. - London sale, Olympia Auctions, November 25, 2021, The Bernard Kelly collection, lot 236. - Paris sale, Hôtel Drouot, Me Doutrebente, March 30, 2022, vente judiciaire collection F. A, lot 225. Bronze plaques of Raphael's famous painting are not very common. Two versions are known: a smaller one (approx. 15 cm x 9 cm), of narrower proportions, with stretched figures, no surrounding landscape and the saint's mantle adorned with floral motifs, and a much larger one (approx. 24 cm x 17 cm), a very comparable example of which can be found in the Kelly collection (lot 236 of the sale) as well as another in the Antonovich collection (lot 225 of the sale). The style of this second version is that of the late 16th or early 17th century. Faithful to Raphael's composition, it departs from the print by Marcantoine Raimondi, circa 1514, on which there is no landscape (fig.b). The commissioning of this second version may thus correspond to the intensification of the cult of Saint Cecilia, following the exhumation of the saint's bones in Rome in 1599.