{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O187161"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O187161/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009BY6490/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009BY6490/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009BY6490","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HC4162","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O187161/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O187161","accessionNumber":"E.571-1975","objectType":"Design","titles":[{"title":"Design for a fountain court","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This drawing has been identified as a mid 17th century design by the architect Gherardo Silvani for a fountain court, probably executed for the Salviatis, a prominent Florentine family, to enhance their garden at Borgo Pinti. The fountains to either side of the design display the coat of arms of the Salviati. The bronze sculpture group in the centre represents Pluto, the god of the underworld, abducting Proserpina. The drawing has allowed historians to trace the early life of this sculpture, which in 1896 was bought by the 1st Viscount Astor for his house at Cliveden, Berkshire, and is currently on loan to the V&A. ","physicalDescription":"Design showing an elevation of a semi-circular screen wall around a central circular basin with a sculpture group of Pluto and Proserpina on a rock-work base. The wall is of seven bays separated by detached columns supporting scrolled brackets, and has a tall attic. The centre is pierced by an, apparently open, arch surmounted by rock-work and a cartouche and flanked by niches. To the left and right of the semi-circular court are tufa-encrusted niches with elaborate tiered wall fountains consisting of intertwined sirens resting on a scallop shell, supported on the tails of grotesque fishes. Each pair of sirens carries the arms of the Salviati family, surmounted by a coronet, and water spouts from the mouths of the sirens and fish, eventually falling into a shallow basin. \nInscribed with a Florentine 'braccia' scale (one braccia = 58.4cm). The drawing probably represents a scheme made for a Salviati villa.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Silvani, Gherardo","id":"AUTH387531"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":"attributed to"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"paper","id":"AAT14109"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing","id":"AAT54196"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"pen and ink and monochrome wash","categories":[{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"},{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"},{"text":"Architecture","id":"THES48993"},{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2009BY6490","2014HC4162"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"A","shelf":"111","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"design","id":"AAT102051"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Italy","id":"x28927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1653","earliest":"1648-01-01","latest":"1657-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"LOAN:NATIONAL TRUST.14","id":"O68813"},"association":"Source"}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"20.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"from catalogue","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"41.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"from catalogue","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Scala di Braccia 10 = Florentine","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inscribed"}],"objectHistory":"Antonia Boström identifies the drawing as a design by the architect Gherardo Silvani for a fountain court in the garden at the Salviati Casino in the Borgo Pinti, Florence. The design is consistent with Silvani's style, and the Salviati accounts show payments made to Silvani in the 1650s for works executed at Borgo Pinti. The Salviati coat of arms appears in the design, and the scale used is Florentine braccia.\n\nHistorical significance: The bronze sculpture group represented in this drawing is currently on loan to the V&amp;A (LOAN:NATIONALTRUST.14) after being removed from its position in the garden at Cliveden to prevent weather damage. The drawing has provided evidence of the sculpture's provenance: it can be traced back to the Salviati family and from there to the original owner Giovan Vettorio Soderini.\r\n\r\nThe drawing was previously attributed to Ferdinando Ruggieri (1691-1741) and thought to be for engraving, although no engravings of this drawing have been traced. For a very similar drawing by Ruggieri, engraved for his 'Studio d'Architettura Civile', Florence, 1722-28, see L. Ginori Lisci, 'I Palazzi di Firenze nella Storia e nell'Arte', 1972, fig 157.\r\n\nA reduced bronze version by Pietro di Barga of the sculptural group is in the Bargello (Giacomo de Nicola, Pietro di Barga', 'Burlington magazine', XXIX, 1916, p.369.\r\n\r\nProvenance: Alister Matthews, Bournemouth. Catalogue 86, no. 19.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Attributed to Gherardo Silvani, design for a fountain court, pen and ink and wash, Italy, mid 17th century ","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Boström, A.  'A Bronze Group of the Rape of Proserpina at Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire', <u>The Burlington Magazine</u> December 1990, CXXXII, no. 1053. pp. 829-840"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Pluto","id":"N341"},{"text":"Proserpine","id":"N342"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"fountains","id":"AAT6179"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.571-1975"],"accessionNumberNum":"571","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1975,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-20","recordCreationDate":"2009-02-10","availableToBook":false}}