Lot · 47745296ATTRIBUTED TO FRANCESCO FANELLI (ITALIAN, 1577-1657): A MID 17TH CENTURY FIGURE OF A FEMALE RECLINING NUDE leaning on a rocky outcrop draped with a cloak, looking over her right shoulder, 12cm high x 17cm wide PROVENANCE: CHARLES AVERY COLLECTION Charles Avery is a specialist in European sculpture, particularly Italian, French, English, Flemish and Dutch. A graduate in Classics at Cambridge University, he obtained a Diploma in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute and a doctorate for published work from Cambridge. Having been Deputy Keeper of Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum for twelve years (1966-79), and a Director of Christies for ten years, since 1990 he has been a highly respected, independent historian, consultant, writer and lecturer. His books include Florentine Renaissance Sculpture, 1970, Giambologna the Complete Sculpture, Phaidon, 1987, Donatello: An Introduction, John Murray, 1994; Bernini, Genius of the Baroque, Thames and Hudson, 1997 (paperback, 2006), and The Triumph of Motion: Francesco Bertos, 2008. Purchased by Dr Avery from the Adams Collection, Bonhams, 23 May 1996, lot 55. This unusual, portrait like statuette was previously thought to have been associated with the work of Guglielmo della Porta. A red wax relief by Della Porta and Manno Sbarri (Florence, 1494-1553) depicting the Infant Hercules includes a similar nude female figure in kneeling position over a draped raised surface (see Trinity Fine Art exhibition, New York, 2009, no. 5). However the coiffure modelled in the present statuette is consistent with the 1630's and the casting recalls the technique of Fanelli.