{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O16273"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O16273/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BE2963/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BE2963/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BE2963","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HU9259","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HU9261","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HU9263","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HU9268","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HU9269","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KY8795","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O16273/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O16273","accessionNumber":"A.72-1910","objectType":"Group","titles":[{"title":"Two boys with a  fish","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"The group was once thought to have been by the talented Florentine sculptor Pierino da Vinci (about 1529-1553), the nephew of Leonardo da Vinci, who died tragically young of a fever.  According to the artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari, a marble group of putti with fish was carved by Pierino when working under Niccolo Tribolo on decorations for the gardens of the Medicean Villa at Castello, near Florence, which could potentially be related to this model, although this version displays only one fish. The stylistic treatment of the children is reminiscent of Pierino's lively bronze boys that decorate the perimeter of the basin of the Fountain of Hercules at Castello, three of which survive. \r\n\r\nHowever, technical examination undertaken in 1985/6 indicates that the sculpture was created in the 19th century, based on the technique and surface treatment. Apparently thinly-cast and packed from behind with dense filling material, it was perhaps created from a plaster copy of a 16th-century original. Thermoluminescence testing of the sculpture, which enables the date of the last firing to be calculated, supports this proposal, although it transpired that the sculpture had been X-rayed prior to that sample being taken, which can affect the results.  The surface has been overpainted with a terracotta-coloured paint, and the head of the figure on our right is made from a lighter and yellower clay. It differs stylistically from that on the left, and is likely to be a replacement. The heads do not fit comfortably, with plaster make-up on the necks, and photographic evidence shows that they were swapped sometime between the publication of Eric Maclagan and Margaret Longhurst's <i>Catalogue of Italian Sculpture</i>, published in 1932, and John Pope-Hennessy's catalogue, work on which was completed in 1960. Museum records provide no details, but it may be that an old break opened up and they were swapped in the belief that they had been wrongly positioned previously.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Two boys, naked except for narrow strips of drapery, stand side by side, the arm of that on the spectator's left draped over the shoulder of his companion. His left leg rests on a tree stump, and he smiles down at the head of a fish supported on that knee. The fish's mouth is pen as though to spout water, and the boy holds the tail in his left hand.  His companion smiles at him, while resting his right hand on the fish's head. The sculpture has been previously broken and repaired. The head of the figure on the spectator's right is a replacement, being of a different style and a lighter, yellower clay. The heads have been swapped from their previous position.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"da Vinci, Pierino","id":"A8307"},"association":{"text":"Artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":"Style of Pierino da Vinci"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Terracotta","id":"AAT10669"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Terracotta, with terracotta-coloured overpaint","categories":[{"text":"Architectural fittings","id":"THES48994"},{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2006BE2963","2015HU9259","2015HU9261","2015HU9263","2015HU9268","2015HU9269","2018KY8795"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES397762"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Statuette","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Florence","id":"x28848"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1840-1860","earliest":"1840-01-01","latest":"1860-12-31"},"association":{"text":"cast","id":"x32615"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"65.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"From the Salting Bequest.","historicalContext":"The group was once thought to have been by the Florentine sculptor Pierino da Vinci (about 1529-1553), and potentially related to a marble group of two putti with fish was, according to Vasari, carved by Pierino when working under Tribolo on decorations for the gardens of the Medicean Villa at Castello. It relates closely to Pierino's bronze boys on a fountain at Castello. Technical examination in the 1980s suggested instead that it is a 19th-century creation, probably cast after a 16th-century original. \n\nThe group has been damaged in the past and undergone conservation, presumably both before and subsequent to its acquisition in 1910 as part of the bequest from George Salting. At some stage between the 1932 and 1960, the heads were swapped.  A bronze version, clearly made when the heads were in their previous position, was sold at Christie's London on 2 July 1996 (lot.190).\n\n","briefDescription":"Group, painted terracotta, two boys with a fish, Style of Pierino da Vinci, Italy (Florence), about 1840-1860","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Maclagan, Eric and Longhurst, Margaret H. <u>Catalogue of Italian Sculpture. Text</u>. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1932, p. 115"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Pope-Hennessy, John, assisted by Ronald Lightbown, <u>Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Volume II: Text. Sixteenth to Twentieth Century</u>. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1964, pp. 442-443, cat. 471; III, fig.466"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Raggio, Olga. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum. <u>Art Bulletin</u>. Vol. L, 1968, p. 103"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"'Salting Bequest (A70 to A1029-1910) / Murray Bequest (A 1030 to A 1096-1910)'. In: <u>List of Works of Art Acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum (Department of Architecture and Sculpture)</u>. London: Printed under the Authority of his Majesty's Stationery Office, by Eyre and Spottiswoode, Limited, East Harding Street, EC, p. 1"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Holderbaum, James. 'Recuperi moderni di sculture di Pierino da Vinci, e l'identificazione di un ritratto del Bronzino che raffigura Pierino con la sua statua di Bacco' in Cianchi, M. (ed.), <i>Pierino da Vinci. Atti della giornata di studio,</i> Florence, 1995, pp.17-23, fig.24"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Kusch-Arnhold, Britta. <i>Pierino da Vinc</i>i, Rhema, 2008, pp.255-256"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Christie's sale catalogue, London, 2 July 1990, lot.190 for a related bronze version."}],"production":"The head of the boy on the spectator's left is a substitution of a later date, being created from a lighter, yellower clay than the rest of the sculpture.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"figures","id":"AAT189808"},{"text":"children","id":"AAT25945"},{"text":"fish","id":"x30068"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["A.72-1910"],"accessionNumberNum":"72","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":1910,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-16","recordCreationDate":"1999-12-15","availableToBook":true}}