CHARLES QUINT (1500-1558) Roi des Espagnes et Empereur du Saint-Empire

Lot 850
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5000 - 7000 EUR
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Result : 6 240EUR
CHARLES QUINT (1500-1558) Roi des Espagnes et Empereur du Saint-Empire
L.S. "Carolus", Brussels 31 January 1554, to Fernando de GONZAGA, prince of Molfetta, governor of Milan; countersigned by Francisco de VARGAS; 2 pages in-fol, address with trace of red wax stamp; in Spanish. Beautiful letter about his taste for art and the sculptures commissioned from Leone Leoni. [Eminent sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, Leone LEONI (1509- 1590) known as Leone Aretino (his family was originally from Arezzo) settled in Milan in 1542, and, thanks to the protection of Ferrante I or Fernando GONZAGA (1507-1557), governor of Milan, he became the personal sculptor of the Emperor Charles V, of whom he sculpted or cast numerous portraits. In 1549, the Emperor gave him the important commission referred to here, but Leone Leoni fell behind by working first for other great patrons, such as Charles V's sister Mary of Habsburg, former Queen of Hungary who was Governor of the Netherlands]. Charles V says here that he is furious at Leone Leoni's delay in delivering the eight works he commissioned from her, four in bronze and four in marble, which he has been waiting for more than four years; this is why he has interrupted the payment of his pension to the artist. He has seen Gonzaga's letter of December 28th about the sculptures Leoni has made ("las esculturas que Leon Aretino ha hecho"), and he is delighted to learn of the state of completion where they are, as well as their excellence and perfection ("su excellencia y perfiction"). And although he is pleased that Leoni has served his sister Queen Maria, he is very much furious that, although it has been more than four years since these eight pieces, four of bronze and four of marble, were commissioned from him, they must have been more advanced than they are. Charles can see from Gonzaga's letter that Leoni worked on them the least, when it should have been the most. ("nos fuera muy mayor que haviendo mas de quatro años que le mandamos hazer aquellas ocho pieças quatro de b
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