François Dusquenoy (circle of) (1597 - 1643) - Two sculptures depicting "La Prudence" and "La Charity" Italy, mid-17th century coeval cast bronze; imitation porphyry wood base H. 32 cm The draped standing female figure, with her left forearm outstretched around which a serpent is coiled, could possibly depict 'La Prudenza'. Although the bronze recalls classical models of draped statues from antiquity, it reveals a direct dependence on the famous Saint Susanna (1630) by François Duquesnoy, preserved in the Church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Rome. The reference is evident in the typology of the face, the softness of the modelling and the dynamic counterpoint, elements that translate the measured classicism and formal grace typical of the Flemish master active in Rome onto a smaller scale. Similar examples and variants of the model are documented in historical Viennese collections (Braun, 1908; Planiscig, 1916) and in a terracotta version from the Chigi collection, now in the Borgia Apartments, whose attribution has been the subject of critical debate. The same model was also reused as the figure of Antiope in bronze reductions of the Farnese Bull, confirming the composition's popularity and diffusion. In terms of the quality of modelling, the treatment of the drapery and typological adherence to the Roman prototype, the work can be placed in the sphere of 17th-century Roman Baroque sculpture, in relation to the circle and fortune of François Duquesnoy.The second figure could depict a female allegory of Pudicitia (Modesty) or Charity. A standing draped female figure, set frontally, with her hands clasped at belly height and wrapped in a large drape that descends in wide, compact folds. The face, slightly inclined, is marked by a composed idealisation, according to a classicist language that favours balance and measure. The surface has diffuse porosity and an evident lacuna on the right side of the robe; the gilding appears later. The work is part of the strand of late 17th-century classicist sculpture, characterised by the re-elaboration of ancient statuary models, in particular the type of the Roman Pudicitia, known through exemplars conserved in the Capitoline Museums and other antiquarian collections. In fact, the recollected posture, the upright posture and the composure of the attitude refer to this iconographic tradition, reinterpreted in a decorative key for cultured collectors in the late 17th and early 18th century. In terms of the quality of the modelling and the treatment of the drapery, the work appears to be ascribable to the Roman or northern Italian sphere, in the orbit of the classicism promoted by Alessandro Algardi and François Duquesnoy, although it cannot be referred to a specific autograph prototype. It is probably a workshop or follower production, destined for a collector's and ornamental context.Broken and missing