A BOY PLAYING A FLUTE

The composition of the young Boy Playing a Flute seems ultimately to be derived from the bronze Putto con Delfino (Putto with a Dolphin) created by the Renaissance master Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488) in the last quarter of the 15^th century. Originally designed for the gardens of the Villa Medicea di Careggi, the group by Verrocchio was later placed in the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The present figure adopts a similar torsion of the body, with his head turned slightly to his right and his proper right leg stretched backwards. The facial features are precise and the gaze invites the viewer to observe him from different points of view. Several such Mannerist compositions from the late 16th and early 17th centuries can be traced back to Barthélémy Prieur, in particular through parallels in the stylised treatment of the body type, but also by comparing bronze subjects described in André Le Nôtre's 1693 posthumous inventory. Number 350 of this inventory records ‘une autre figure de bronze representant Mercure jouant de la fluste, posée sur son pied d’ébeyne, prisée 40L’ (‘another bronze figure representing Mercury playing the flute, placed on its ebony base, valued at 40L’), possibly corresponding to the Mercury playing the Flute attributed to Prieur in the former Abbott Guggenheim collection (Christie's, New York, 28 January 2015, lot 91, now in a private collection), whose composition is related to the present lot. Only one other example of this model is known and is of the same dimensions - it was sold Sotheby's, London, 6 July 2007, lot 110.

Barthélémy Prieur was appointed Sculpteur du roi of King Henry IV in 1591. He worked on the decoration of the façades of the Palais du Louvre and created several funerary monuments, some of the most famous of which are now in the Musée du Louvre following the destruction of Parisian churches during the Revolution. These include the monument to the heart of the Connétable and Duc Anne de Montmorency (inv. MR 1658) and parts of the monument to Jacques-Auguste de Thou (inv. MR 1684).

This bronze was part of the collection assembled by Gerald Edward Coke (1907-1990) and Patricia Coke (1916-1995) in Jenkyn Place, Hampshire. A major industrialist and financier with a passion for music, Gerald Edward Coke built up a fine collection of art including bronzes. He also created the Gerald Coke Handel Collection including manuscripts and works of art about the German-British Baroque composer Handel and his contemporaries.