The triumph of motion

"Francesco Bertos (1678-1741) lived and died at Dolo, near Padua, where people used to change boats at a lock between the Brenta Canal and the Lagoon of Venice. Until recently a mysterious and neglected sculptor, he specialised in the production of eye-catching mythological, allegorical and religious groups of generally conical form." "Many of the figures are all but flying, or just manage to support each other like acrobats or ballet-dancers. Indeed, they have been likened to Rococo porcelain groups. Bertos was obsessed with a constant search for dynamic movement, in a similar vein to contemporary, late Baroque paintings, especially the tumbling groups of figures in airy trompe l'oeil ceilings." "Bertos's work is not - as has sometimes been supposeddevoid of meaning and merely capricious or even humorous, but has definite - if high-flown - meanings." "His principal patrons were the nobility of Venice and Padua, as well as foreign royalty: Tsar Peter the Great, and the King of Sardinia, of the House of Savoy in Turin." "This book documents the rediscovery of Bertos's work and the reassessment of his standing during the twentieth century, which has gone hand in hand with trends in the art market and fashions in collecting, especially in England and America."--Jacket.