Stand number: 306
Colnaghi will show this 22in (55cm) high alabaster fragment depicting two music-making putti by the Spanish Mannerist sculptor Alonso Berruguete (c.1488-1561). He studied under Michelangelo in Florence and this recently discovered work – probably from a tomb or part of a funerary chapel – is closely related to the putti which accompany the Cumean Sibyl in the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel (1509).
The small putti hold, with their fat fingers, Renaissance-era musical instruments. One child seems to be playing a cornetto (an instrument made of wood lined with leather often used in 16th century music) while the other blows into an early forerunner of the serpent.