Josef Mullner (Austrian, 1879-1968)
"Medusa"
1918
bronze
Height 24,5 cm
signed and dated in the cast: "J. Mullner 1918"
foundry stamp: "ÖSTERR GESELLSCHAFT Z.FORDERUNG D.MEDAILLENKUNST UND KLEINPLASTIK"
additional stamps: "GMK" and "EISENGIESSEREI A.G. WIEN"
stamped number: "50"
The Daulton Collection
Condition: some minor surface marks and wear to the patina on the
high points.
Provenance:
ex coll. Seymour Stein (1942-2023), the noted American entrepreneur and music executive
Sotheby's, 22 June 1990, Lot 212
References:
Bram Dijkstra, Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-de-Siècle Culture (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), pgs. 310-311, ill. IX, 43.
"Other artists preferred less graphic representations of the Medusa's viraginous characteristics, emphasizing the almost masculine features of the creature's face, as the sculptor Josef Mullner did. He also made it a point to have the Medusa's serpentine coiffure as lifelike as possible." Dijkstra at pgs. 310-311.
