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Lot Essay
Leonhard Kern was one of the most individual sculptors of the seventeenth century. His highly expressive, often nude and voluptuous statuettes were carved with an air of modernity that is more akin to the works of Aristide Maillol or Fernando Botero than to his 17th century counterparts. It is perhaps for this reason that works by Kern have been so avidly collected in the last century and particularly in the last 30 years.
Kern's preferred media were wood - usually box or pear - and ivory, and he generally worked on a small scale. He often drew inspiration from earlier prototypes as his Sleeping Woman after Giambologna and his Rubensian Eve demonstrate (Grünenwald, op. cit., pls. 5 and 61). However, even in these reproductions his creations are unmistakably individual.
There can be little doubt that the present figure of a kneeling and bound slave pays homage to one of Pietro Tacca's bound slaves from the Monument to Ferdinand I, Livorno. With the present figure, however, Kern disposes with the restricted view points of Tacca's composition and creates a beautifully three-dimensional study of the male nude.
Although the present piece is unsigned it can be attributed to Kern on stylistic grounds. It compares extremely closely to the figure of Adam from the Expulsion group in the Württembergischen Landesmuseum, Stuttgart (Fischer, loc. cit.) and the figure of a Bowler in the Robert H. Smith Collection, Washington. In each instance one sees the same cropped hair, rounded faces with tense brows, muscular torsos and delicate creases in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. The fact that the former has been dated to circa 1620 and the latter to the 1640s or even 50s would suggest that Kern continued to be fascinated with the creation of these sensitive and expressive studies. Indeed, the existence of other similarly carved wood figures dating from throughout his career testifies to this.
Kern's preferred media were wood - usually box or pear - and ivory, and he generally worked on a small scale. He often drew inspiration from earlier prototypes as his Sleeping Woman after Giambologna and his Rubensian Eve demonstrate (Grünenwald, op. cit., pls. 5 and 61). However, even in these reproductions his creations are unmistakably individual.
There can be little doubt that the present figure of a kneeling and bound slave pays homage to one of Pietro Tacca's bound slaves from the Monument to Ferdinand I, Livorno. With the present figure, however, Kern disposes with the restricted view points of Tacca's composition and creates a beautifully three-dimensional study of the male nude.
Although the present piece is unsigned it can be attributed to Kern on stylistic grounds. It compares extremely closely to the figure of Adam from the Expulsion group in the Württembergischen Landesmuseum, Stuttgart (Fischer, loc. cit.) and the figure of a Bowler in the Robert H. Smith Collection, Washington. In each instance one sees the same cropped hair, rounded faces with tense brows, muscular torsos and delicate creases in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. The fact that the former has been dated to circa 1620 and the latter to the 1640s or even 50s would suggest that Kern continued to be fascinated with the creation of these sensitive and expressive studies. Indeed, the existence of other similarly carved wood figures dating from throughout his career testifies to this.