Two Large Grand Tour Gilt Bronze Models of the Column of Marcus Aurelius and Trajan's Column

19th Century

each mounted on rotating metal bases.
Height of each 30 1/4 inches.

Property from a Prominent Corporate Collection

Note:

In mid- to late 18th century Rome, Luigi Valadier (Italian, 1726-1785), the city's preeminent decorative artist, created highly elaborate works of bronze and silver for wealthy patrons. Among his signature creations were scaled-down reproductions of monuments from Roman antiquity intended for use as dining table centerpieces, known as desers. In 1805, Prussian casters Wilhelm Hopfgarten (German, 1789-1860) and Benjamin Ludwig Jollage (German, 1781-1837) opened a foundry and chasing workshop in Rome, and began producing a more diverse array of architectural models intended as Grand Tour souvenirs.

The present two models are very similar to those cast by Hopfgarten and Jollage, which were almost always unsigned. While these examples of Trajan's Column and the Column of Marcus Aurelius lack surmounting figures, traces of the the feet of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius remain visible, reflecting the Prussian firm's preference for rendering monuments as they appeared in antiquity. Throughout the 19th century, other bronze foundries followed Hopfgarten and Jollage in suit, producing nearly indistinguishable souvenir models in similar materials and styles, including the Parisian foundry Leblanc Frères.