□ A LEAD PLAQUETTE OF CHRIST BEFORE PILATE, VALERIO BELLI (C.1468-1546), 16TH CENTURY

trapezoidal, Christ surrounded by soldiers and disciples brought before Pilate sitting on a dais and washing his hands, signed to the side of the platform 'VALERIVS BELLV VICETINVS FA', a classical colonnade in the background, pierced

6.5 x 9.5cm

Provenance: Collection of Alfred Spero (1886-1973), London, from whom acquired by Bernard Kelly between 1967-1969. *See lot 309 for Introduction to the Bernard Kelly Collection and Selected Bibliography*

This scene is one of a series of similarly shaped Belli plaquettes of The Passion of Christ.

Bange 766; Kress 14; Belli 56

LOTS 309 - 490: THE BERNARD KELLY COLLECTION OF PLAQUETTES TO BE SOLD WITHOUT RESERVE, PART PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT WESTMINSTER ABBEY

Every so often, if increasingly rarely these days, a collection emerges onto the market that takes you back to another age. The interesting and varied collection of Renaissance and later plaquettes being offered here is therefore a major event. Although some have a more recent provenance, notably from Sylvia Phyllis Adams, whose collection was sold at Bonham's in 1995, the nucleus of the collection on offer represents the private collection formed by the dealer Alfred Spero, mainly between 1911 and 1936. Spero began trading in London around the beginning of the twentieth century and his career, which lasted into the 1960s, bridged the late Victorian art world and the modern post-War market. Although today a largely forgotten figure, a glance at almost any marked-up catalogue of European sculpture and decorative arts sales in London from the 1920s to the 1960s will reveal Alfred Spero as one of the most active and consistent presences at the auction. Spero was able to benefit from the abundance of Renaissance small bronze sculptures, maiolica, glass and, of course, plaquettes and medals, that were then available on the market during what, for collectors and museums, must have been a golden age of opportunity. Alfred Spero's own collection of plaquettes contained works stated to have come from some of the great collections of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, Adalbert von Lanna, whose vast collections were sold in Prague in 1911, J.E. Taylor, sold at Christie's in 1912 and the banker Henry Oppenheimer, a series of sales in 1936, again at Christie's. There are also plaquettes formerly belonging to two supporters of great museums, Thomas Whitcombe Greene, who gave many of his plaquettes to the British Museum in 1915, and Dr W.L. Hildburgh (1876-1955), one of the Victoria & Albert Museum's greatest benefactors. Alfred Spero also had a close relationship with the V&A, which as a museum must have been close to his heart. He made a number of gifts to the museum and also sold it various bronzes and other works of art. Purchases and gifts from Spero helped the V&A build its preeminent collection of European Baroque ivories, whilst in 1964 the museum bought from him a masterpiece of Renaissance bronze sculpture, the exquisite figure of Venus removing a thorn from her foot of c. 1560-70 by the French sculptor Ponce Jacquiot.

Small-scale, usually single-sided cast metal reliefs, plaquettes began to be made from the mid-fifteenth century and flourished in their purest form only for a limited period of around one hundred years, although they continued to be made into the seventeenth century and beyond. Their subject matter is varied, from designs after the antique to mythological and religious scenes, whilst some plaquettes are important records of designs originally made in precious metal, which have otherwise disappeared. When Alfred Spero began his professional career, plaquettes were eagerly collected and studied, but they have since become a somewhat unjustly neglected art form. At their best, plaquettes are extraordinarily inventive and beautiful works of art, which in their choice and treatment of subject matter are truly emblematic of the Renaissance rebirth of the arts.
Dr Jeremy Warren, FSA
Honorary Curator of Sculpture, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Selected Bibliography
* Attwood - Philip Attwood, 'Italian Medals c. 1530-1600 in British Public Collections', 2 vols., London 2003
* Bange - E.F. Bange, 'Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Die italienischen Bronzen der Renaissance und des Barock. II: Reliefs und Plaketten', Berlin 1922
* Belli - Howard Burns, Marco Collareta and Davide Gasparotto, eds., 'Valerio Belli Vicentino 1468c.-1546', Vicenza 2000
* Bernardi 1989 - Valentino Donati, 'Pietre Dure e Medaglie del Rinascimento. Giovanni da Castel Bolognese', Ferrara 1989
* Bernardi 2011 - Valentino Donato, 'L'Opera del Giovanni Bernardi da Castel Bolognese nel Rinascimento', Faenza 2011
* Bowdoin - Andrea S. Norris and Ingrid Weber, 'Medals and Plaquettes from the Molinari Collection at Bowdoin College', Brunswick, Maine 1976
*Jones - Mark Jones, 'A Catalogue of the French Medals in the British Museum. II. 1600-1672', London 1988
*Kress - John Pope-Hennessy, 'Renaissance Bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Reliefs, Plaquettes, Statuettes, Utensils and Mortars', London 1965
*Molinier - Émile Molinier, 'Les Bronzes de la Renaissance. Les Plaquettes. Catalogue Raisonné', 2 vols., Paris 1886
*Norris/Weber - A.S. Norris and I. Weber, 'Medals and Plaquettes from the Molinari Collection at Bowdoin College', Brunswick, ME 1976
*Planiscig - Leo Planiscig, 'Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien: Die Estensische Kunstsammlung, I: Skulpturen und Plastiken des Mittelalters und der Reanaissance', Vienna 1919
*Scaglia - Francesco Rossi, 'La Collezione Mario Scaglia. Placchette', 3 vols., Bergamo 2011
*Toderi Vannel - Giuseppe Toderi and Fiorenza Vannel, 'Le Medaglie Italiane del XVI secolo', 3 vols., Florence 20004
*Warren Ashmolean - Jeremy Warren, 'Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection in the Ashmolean Museum', 3 vols., Oxford 2014
*Warren Wallace - Jeremy Warren, 'The Wallace Collection. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture', 2 vols., London 2016
*Weber - Ingrid Weber, ‚Deutsche, Niederländische und Französische Renaissanceplaketten 1500-1650', 2 vols., Munich 1975