Niccolò Roccatagliata (ambito di), Chinese girl

Black patinated bronze, wear. Measurements with base: 27.5x11x11 cm; Measurements without base: 20.5x12x7 cm This curious bronze statuette depicts a female figure that is difficult to identify. Dressed in ancient style, she wears a long tunic covered with a fringed saddle cloth at the waist and around the neck. She also wears high-heeled boots and holds a fruit in her raised right hand, perhaps a pear or a fig, given the large leaf it is wrapped in. She probably held a stick in her left hand, now lost, which was stuck into a hole still present on the base. Finally, an extraordinary "cone" hat, finished in a point above the forehead, two large drop earrings and a pumpkin-shaped water bottle complete our outfit. Even though there are no similar bronzes in any publication in my possession, the type of patina (bituminous black), the modelling and above all the eyes surrounded by heavy bags, place it in the circle of Niccolò Roccatagliata or of the 17th century workshop. Note the beautiful black patina that fades to a reddish color where worn. Perhaps an unpublished work from the late Venetian Renaissance and an early trace of the taste for chinoiserie.