Winter

This statuette representing 'Winter' was made by an unknown artist, made probably in Germany or perhaps Spain, in ca. 1700-1720. The figure is Italianate by the proportions and and stylistic features. The head, feet and hands of this figure are disproportionately small, and the elongated limbs recall Italian mannerist sculpture of the sixteenth century. Analogous pieces are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna: Neptune and Amphitrite. The elongated proportions and poses of the figures are closely comparable, and the facial features and beard of the Neptune in Vienna are very similar to those of Winter. Those in Vienna and the present figure bear some analogies with the reliefs known to be by Leoni in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich. The proportions of this figure, with its elongated legs and small head, also bear resemblances to sixteenth-century Italian bronzes, such as those by Alessandro Vittoria (1525-1608).