The J. Paul Getty Museum collection of European sculpture, featured in this volume, ranges in date from the very early fifteenth century to the very early twentieth and includes a wide variety of media: marble, bronze, alabaster, terra cotta, plaster, wood, ivory, and gold. The earliest sculpture represented is the mysterious Saint Cyricus by Francesco Laurana; the latest is a shield-like portrait of Medusa by the eccentric Italian sculptor Vincenzo Gemito. Among the more than forty works included in this illustrated volume are sculptures by Antico (Bust of a Young Man); Cellini (a Satyr designed for Fontainebleau); Giambologna (a Female Figure that may represent Venus); Bernini (Boy with a Dragon); Canova (Apollo Crowning Himself); and Carpeaux (Bust of Jean-Leon Gerome). Well represented here is the Museum's splendid collection of Mannerist and early Baroque bronzes including such masterpieces as Johann Gregor van der Schardt's Mercury and two superb works by Adriaen de Vries: Juggling Man and Rearing Horse. These works are indicative of the extraordinary quality of the J. Paul Getty Museum's collection of post-classical European sculpture.
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