1055 - Tellus Bavarica, Bavarian Diana, after Hubert Gerhard, bronze in Renaissance style, 20th c. cast

Tellus Bavarica, Bavarian Diana, after Hubert Gerhard, bronze in Renaissance style, 20th c. cast Bronze and marble. Cast in bronze and dark patinated, on a black, white-veined marble base. Figure of the Tellus Bavarica, the so-called Bavarian Diana, in Renaissance style after Hubert Gerhard, with attributes of the riches of Bavaria. Signed on the plinth “H.GERHARD”, next to it an inset round foundry plaque “BRONZE GARANTI PARIS” with “J.B DEPOSEE”, 20th century cast. The figure wears a round helmet with a narrow brim and a small hippogriff as crest, long loose hair, a strap diagonally across the chest from which a hunting horn hangs at the left hip, a band with buckle below the chest, an arm ring with relief decoration on the left upper arm and a fringed cloth around the hips; over the right arm and on the back a deer skin with stag head and antlers for the game; the left foot rests on a lying salt barrel, the right hand is closed into a fist. Rectangular, stepped plinth, screwed to the base. Good, used condition. 71x23x28 cm (HxWxD) The Tellus Bavarica is a personification of the Bavarian land and one of the best-known works of the sculptor Hubert Gerhard, who was born around 1540/50 and died in 1620. Gerhard created the bronze figure before 1590 for a fountain of the Munich Residence; in 1616 Duke Maximilian I had it moved to the Hofgarten temple, also called the Diana Temple, erected around 1615, where a copy stands today; the original has been in the Residence Museum since 1985. The attributes of the original stand for the wealth of the land: the deer skin over the right arm for hunting, the salt barrel for the salt trade, the wreath of corn and the water vessel for agriculture and water, the orb for the electoral dignity obtained in 1623; the cast adopts the deer skin and the salt barrel. The figure is also known as the Bavarian Diana and was, among others, produced in porcelain by the Nymphenburg manufactory after Gerhard’s bronze.