The Modeller

Adriaen de Vries in Search of the viva figura

Series: 

Author:
Frits Scholten
Translator:
Pierre Bouvier
“In these days the most famous modeller”: this is how the Dutch sculptor Adriaen de Vries (1556–1626) was characterised in 1621. A virtuoso modeller, De Vries explored new ways to enliven his art. His bronze sculptures were made in a radically new, sketchy style, with free figure compositions and a vigorous treatment of human anatomy, often balancing on the border between realism and distortion.
This book explores how and why a Late-Renaissance sculptor broke so drastically with the prevailing stylistic paradigm of his time, in search of vivezza, natural liveliness, and the viva figura, the statue on the brink of coming to life. Adriaen de Vries aimed to create sculptures that move in the metaphorical no-man's land between death and life, back and forth from inert bronze to apparent vitality, as this study will argue.
Copyright Year:
2025
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-73733-4
Publication:
30 Jun 2025
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-73732-7
Publication:
06 Aug 2025
Cover The Modeller

Prices from (excl. shipping):

€154.03€146.00 excl. VAT
Add to Cart
Frits Scholten, Ph.D. (2003, University of Amsterdam) is Senior Curator of Sculpture at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and holds the Chair of the History of Western Sculpture at the University of Amsterdam. He has published widely on late medieval and early modern sculpture.
“A fundamental resource for all students of Adriaen de Vries and sculpture of the early baroque period.”
Holly (Marjorie) Trusted, Senior Curator Emerita of Sculpture, Victoria and Albert Museum. Full review at PSSA Reviews, November 6, 2025.

Contents
Preface
Prologue
List of Figures

1 Introduction: Turbulent Times, a Restless Life and a Dynamic Style

2 Orefice to sculptor nuovo
  1 Stopover in Rome?
 2 Florence
 3 Disegno: the Craftsman Becomes an Artist
 4 Collaborations
 5 De Vries as Artist-Goldsmith
3 Wax: ex caera formatas
  1 Symbolic Notions
 2 Sculptors’ Wax
 3 Making the Modello
 4 Sketching in Wax: der meister erste hand

4 A Loose and Careless Style
 1 An Unorthodox and Exclusive ‘Hand’
 2 A Style for virtuosi
 3 quella esser vera arte, che non appare esser arte

5 Imperfetto and non-finito: Perfection in the Imperfect

6 Vivezza, Skin and Touch: between the Seen and Unseen

7 Pose and Movement: the viva figura

8 Turning the Farnese Bull
 1 Revolving Sculptures
 2 Turning and Modelling
 3 Molte vedute
 4 Machina, Movement and Theatricality
 5 Architecture, Lighting and Turning

9 Living Bronze
 1 Alchemy, Mining and Bronze Casting
 2 Resurrection
 3 Aus einem Guss
 4 Kunststücke machen

10 Epilogue: Plasticity, Movement, and the Loose Style as a Sign of Modernity
 1 Painterliness
 2 Ein malerische Spätstil?

Notes
Bibliography
Art historians in the field of Renaissance and Baroque art in Italy, and the Low Countries; scholars of Western sculpture; art history students; (art)historians interested in history of science, alchemy, bronze casting, gold smithing, art theory, style. Keywords: Sculpture, bronze, bronze casting, bronze statues, beeswax (as art medium), clay (as art medium), modelling, alchemy, court art, viva figura, animation of sculpture, Low Countries, The Hague, Delft, Florence, Prague, Augsburg, Rome, Emperor Rudolf II, Medici family, Giorgio Vasari, Fiamminghi, migration of artists, skin, statues, loose style, Titian, Carel van Mander, Antiquity, energeia, movement in art.
  • Collapse
  • Expand
Publisher:
Brill
Language:
English
Pages:
xxvi, 400 pp.: 186 color ills.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004737334

Manufacturer information:
Koninklijke Brill B.V. 
Plantijnstraat 2
2321 JC
Leiden / The Netherlands
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com