Adriaen de Vries

(L'Aia, 1556 - Praga, 1626)

in the way of

The bust is taken after a full-body sculpture of Adriaen de Vries, now in the Hill Collection. When it appeared at Sotheby's in the first decades of the last century it had been attributed to a Nordic follower of Giambologna. Susanna Zanuso connected it to the nymphaeum in Villa Litta in Lainate, Milan, where the Bacchus sculpture was placed on a high column to splashed water from various holes onto visitors in a playful way typical for Italian Renaissance gardens. Zanuso attributed it to Pelliccioni, a Lombard sculptor working in the Milan cathedral workshop. The bronze passed through international auction and entered Hill Collection, where it was attributed by Claudia Kryza Gersch to Adriaen de Vries, one of Giambologna's major students.