Francesco Bertos (active 1709-1739)

Bertos began his artistic formation with his uncle Girolamo, described in contemporary documents as “a Venetian marble sculptor in Ravenna.”A letter of recommendation dated 1709, addressed to Giovan Battista Foggini, secured him a period of apprenticeship in Foggini’s Florentine workshop, where he likely acquired the techniques of bronze casting.

The turning point in Bertos’s career came with his collaboration with Giovanni Bonazza (1654–1736), who is represented in this sale by the pair of marble pagoda figures. In the 1730s Giovanni Bonazza introduced Bertos to the foremost Venetian collectors and patrons, including Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (1661–1747), General of the Army of th...