{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O148126"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O148126/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018KP6698/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018KP6698/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2018KP6698","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O148126/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O148126","accessionNumber":"474-1864","objectType":"Relief","titles":[{"title":"The Freeing of a Female Saint","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"This is a relief in bronze, made in Rome, second half of the fifteenth century. This relief is representing the freeing of a female saint: on the right beneath an open loggia a female figure seated on the ground surrounded by eight sleeping soldiers is awakened by a woman. On the wall behind hangs the chain from which she has been released. On the left, before a niche surmounted by a statue of Mercury, the female figure is led forward by her companion, who points with her right arm towards a doorway on the left. In the foreground are helmets, shields and armours.\r\n\r\nThis relief is ascribed in the Piot sale catalogue and by Fortnum to Ghiberti. As was first noted by Courajod, a companion relief of a sacrificial scene is in the Louvre. It was observed by Courajod that both reliefs depended from the reliefs of the Arrest of St. Peter and the Freeing of St. Peter in San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome. The two variants are smaller and more roughly executed than the reliefs on the doors, and a number of changes are introduced into the iconography. Thus in the Louvre relief a brazier and serpent replace the central figure of St. Peter, while in the present composition the figures of the sleeping St. Peter on the right and of St. Peter leaving Prison are replaced by a woman, and the wings of the angel are omitted in both parts of the relief. It is suggested by Fortnum that the figure represented is 'an almost forgotten martyr, Glycera,' and by Courajod that a classical subject may be illustrated. Molinier describes the subject of the Louvre relief as St. Paul's Arrival at Malta. The reliquary doors, which are traditionally ascribed to Pollajuolo, are given to Caradosso by Venturi and the relief in the Louvre. It is unlikely that the two doors and the present reliefs were produced in the same workshop, and the presumption is that the reliefs were made in an unidentified Roman studio in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. A dating in the early sixteenth century has also been proposed.","physicalDescription":"On the right beneath an open loggia a female figure seated on the ground surrounded by eight sleeping soldiers is awakened by a woman. On the wall behind hangs the chain from which she has been released. On the left, before a niche surmounted by a statue of Mercury, the female figure is led forward by her companion, who points with her right arm towards a doorway on the left. In the foreground are helmets, shields and armour. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"formerly ascribed to Lorenzo Ghiberti"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"bronze","id":"AAT10957"}],"techniques":[{"text":"relief","id":"AAT53622"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Relief in bronze","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2018KP6698"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES396138"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Relief","id":""}],[{"text":"Panel","id":"x47676"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Italy","id":"x28927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Rome"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"late 15th century","earliest":"1450-01-01","latest":"1499-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"or early 16th century"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"37.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"43.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Bought in Paris (Piot Sale, 1864, 26 April, p. 10, No. 21, £104).","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Panel relief, bronze, representing the freeing of a female saint, unknown sculptor, Italian (Rome), late15th or early 16th century","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Inventory of Art Objects acquired in the Year 1864. <font -u>Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol. 1.</font> London : Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 53"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Radcliffe, Anthony, Malcolm Baker and Michael Maek-Gérard. <font -u>Renaissance and later sculpture : with works of art in bronze: The Thyssen-Bornemisza collection.</font> London: Sotheby, 1992, pp. 198-201"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Pope-Hennessy, John. <font -u>Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum vol.1.</font> London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1964, p. 285"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Arnoldi, Francesco Negri. Scultura Italiana al Victoria and Albert Museum 1,2. <font -u>Commentari.</font> Jun.-Jul. 1970, Anno 12, p. 215"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Mercury","id":"N167"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"angels","id":"x30526"},{"text":"saints","id":"AAT150555"},{"text":"female figure","id":"x43298"},{"text":"soldiers","id":"AAT185678"},{"text":"chain","id":"AAT14625"},{"text":"helmets","id":"AAT36794"},{"text":"shields","id":"x31101"},{"text":"armour","id":"AAT36745"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["474-1864"],"accessionNumberNum":"474","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1864,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-06-10","recordCreationDate":"2008-03-25","availableToBook":true}}