The Cleveland Museum of Art

• Provenance
  1571–72

  Commissioned by Bernardo Vecchietti for the Grotto of the Fata Morgana at Villa Il Riposo, Bagno a Ripoli, Italy

  1571–72–c. 1773

  In the Grotto of the Fata Morgana and Villa of Il Riposo

  1773

  Thomas Patch is noted as possessing the sculpture, in Florence

  1775

  October 14: Thomas Patch requests permission to export the sculpture to "an old English gentleman"

  1775

  November 20: Thomas Patch is granted permission to export the sculpture

  c. 1950

  Purchased by Mr. Hoda of Hurst House, Essex

  c. 1962/67

  Purchased by Charles Worel, London

  1989

  Consigned for sale by Charles Worel in the September 13 Christie's at Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire "Garden Furniture and Architectural Fittings" sale, lot 232

  1989

  Sept. 13: Patricia Wengraf (then trading as Alex Wengraf Ltd.), purchased at Christie's South Kensington at Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire, lot 232

  1998

  Private Collector, acquired from Alex Wengraf Ltd.

  2025

  The Cleveland Museum of Art, purchased through Patricia Wengraf Ltd., from the above private collection
• Citations
  Borghini, R. Il Riposo di Rafaello Borghini. Florence: 1584. Florence, 1730. pp. xvi, 199, 549. archive.org

  Serie degli uomini i più illustri nella pittura, scultura, e architettura, VII. Florence, 1773. p. 22. babel.hathitrust.org

  Borghini, Raffaello. Il riposo di Rafaello Borghini. Florence, 1584. Milan: 1807. pp. 8–9. babel.hathitrust.org

  Desjardins, Abel. La Vie et L'Œuvre de Jean Bologne d'après les manuscrits inédits recueillis par M. Foucques de Vagnonville, f. p. 1883 this edition Paris, 1901. p. 154, no. 9.

  Dhanens, Elisabeth. Jean Boulogne, Giovanni Bologna Fiammingo, Douai 1529 - Florence 1608. Bijdrage tot de studie van de kunstbetrekkingen tussen het graafschap Vlaanderen en Italië (Verhandelingen. Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België. Klasse der Shone Kunsten II). Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 1956. p. 104.

  Benevento, M. I. and G. Fanelli. "Un'architettura del Giambologna in abbandono, Il ninfeo della villa Il riposo." Ingegneri-Architetti XI-XII (1961): pp. 11–24.

  Pope-Hennessy, Sir John Wyndham. Catalogue of Italian sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: H.M. Stationery Off., 1964.

  de Francqueville, Robert. Pierre de Francqueville, Sculpteur des Médicis et du roi Henri IV (1548–1615). Paris: Picard, 1968.

  Gurrieri, Francesco and Judith Chatfield. Boboli Gardens. Florence: Editrice Edam, 1972.

  Bauer, Rotraud and Herbert Haupt. "Das Kunstkammerinventar Kaiser Rudolfs II., 1607-1611." Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Samm-lungen in Wien, Band LXXII, 1976.

  Avery, Charles et al. Giambologna, 1529-1608: Sculptor to the Medici: An Exhibition Organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, in Association with the Edinburgh Festival Society, the Royal Scottish Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. London: The Council, 1978.

  Avery, Charles, Manfred Leithe-Jasper, and Anthony Radcliffe. Giambologna, 1529-1608: Ein Wendepunkt Der EuropäIschen Plastik. Wien: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 1978.

  Avery, Charles. Studies in European Sculpture. London: Christie's, 1981.
  

  Heikamp, Detlef. "The Grotto of the Fata Morgana and Giambologna's Marble Gorgon." Antichità viva: rassegna d'arte, Vol. XX, No. 3 (1981). pp. 12–31.

  Holderbaum, James. "The Sculptor Giovanni Bologna." PhD Dissertation, Harvard University 1959, repr. in Outstanding Dissertations in the Fine Arts. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1983. archive.org

  Watson, Katharine. Pietro Tacca. Successor to Giovanni Bologna. The first twenty-five years in the Borgo Pinti Studio 1592-1617, PhD Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1973. Repr. New York and London, 1983.

  Avery, Charles. "Giambologna's 'Bathsheba': an early marble statue rediscovered." Burlington Magazine, Vol. CXXV, No. 963 (June 1983): p. 344. www.jstor.org

  Keutner, Herbert. Giambologna. Il Mercurio volante e altre opere giovanili (Lo specchio del Bargello 17). Firenze: Museo nazionale del Bargello, 1984.

  Borroni Salvadori, Fabia. "L'esportazione di opere d'arte nella Firenze della seconda metà del '700'." Amici dei Musei, No. 31 (December 1984): p. 9.

  Bury, Michael. "Bernardo Vecchietti, Patron of Giambologna." I Tatti Studies. Essays in the Renaissance, Vol. I (1985): pp. 18, 27.

  Cavalli-Björkman, G. (ed.). Netherlandish Mannerism, (Nationalmusei skriftserie 4), Papers given at a symposium, Nationalmuseum, 21-22 September 1984, Stockholm, 1985.

  Avery, Charles. Giambologna. The Complete Sculpture. Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1987.

  Avery, Charles. Studies in European Sculpture II. London: Christie's, 1988.

  Boccardo, P. et al. "Il Seicento. Artisti e committenti nel segno del Barocco," in Genova e Liguria 1988.

  La Scultura a Genova e in Liguria. II. Dal Seicento al Primo Novecento. Genoa: Cassa di risparmio di Genova e Imperia, 1988.

  Pizzorusso, Claudio. A Boboli e altrove. Sculture e scultori fiorentini del Seicento. Firenze: Olschki, 1989.

  Bury, Michael. "Giambologna's Fata Morgana Rediscovered." Apollo, Vol. CXXXI, No. 336 (February 1990): pp. 96–100, 142.

  Avery, Charles. "When is a Giambologna not a Giambologna?" Apollo, Vol. CXXXI, No. 340 (June 1990): pp. 391–400, 422.

  Cherry, Schroeder, Pat Wengraf, and Marcia Pointon. “Letters to the Editor.” Apollo: The International Magazine of Art & Antiques 131 (June 1990): pp. 438–39, 443.

  Whitfield J. H. “Letters to the Editor.” Apollo: The International Magazine of Art & Antiques 132 (August 1990): p. 139.

  Larsson, Olof Lars. European bronzes, 1450-1700. Stockholm: Swedish National Art Museums, 1992.

  Barocchi, Paola and Giovanna Gaeta Bertelà. Collezionismo mediceo: Cosimo I, Francesco I e il Cardinale Ferdinando. Modena: Franco Cosimo Panini, 1993.

  Fazzini, Antonio. "Collezionismo Privato nella Firenze del Cinquecento. L'«Appartamento Nuovo» di Jacopo di Alamanno Salviati." Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Serie III, Vol. XXIII, 1 (1993). pp. 192–224.

  Radcliffe, Anthony. Giambologna's Cesarini Venus: National Gallery of Art, Washington, 26 September 1993-21 February 1994. Washington D.C.: The National Gallery of Art, 1993. p. 3.

  La Venere Del Giambologna Dal Palazzo dell’Ambasciata Degli Stati Uniti a Roma: Roma, Palazzo Dei Conservatori-Sala Degli Orazi E Curiazi, 6 Luglio-6 Settembre 1993. Roma: De Luca, 1993.

  Radcliffe, Anthony. "Giambologna's Venus for Giangiorgio Cesarini: a recantation", "La scultura II. Studi in onore di A. S. Ciechanowiecki." Antologia di Belle Arti, nuova serie, nn. 52–55, pp. 60–72, 1996.

  Colomo, M. T. "La grotta di Fattucchia e la statua della Fata Morgana di Giambologna." Magnificenza alla corte dei Medici. Firenze: Electa, 1997. pp. 426–429.

  Acidini Luchinat, Cristina, Maria Sframeli, and Museo degli argenti (Florence, Italy). Magnificenza Alla Corte Dei Medici : Arte a Firenze Alla Fine Del Cinquecento. Milano: Electa, 1997. pp. 51–52, no. 18.

  Colomo, M.T. "Il restauro del Ninfeo di Villa Vecchietti o Fonte di Fata Morgana: l'importanza della fonti letterarie e iconografiche." Artifici d'acque e giardini.La cultura delle grotte e dei Ninfei in Italia e in Europa. Firenze: Centro Di Edizioni, 1999. pp. 107–113.

  Avery, Charles. Jean Boulogne: La Belle endormie. Paris: Galerie Piltzer, 2000.

  Brook, Anthea. "A graphic source for Giambologna's Fata Morgana," in Giambologna tra Firenze e L'Europa, Atti del convegno internazionale, Firenze held 5 July, 1995 at Instituto Universitario Olandese di Storia dell'Arte. Centro Di 2000, pp. 47–63.

  Guthmüller, Bodo. Deutschland und Italien in ihren wechselseitigen Beziehungen während der Renaissance. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000.

  Lazzarini, Elena. "The Trade of Luxury Goods in Livorno and Florence in the Eighteenth Century." In The Lustrous Trade: Material Culture and the History of Sculpture in England and Italy, c. 1700-c. 1860, edited by Cinzia Sicca and Alison Yarrington, p. 70. London: Leicester University Press, 2000.

  Avery, Charles. Studies in Italian Sculpture. London: Pindar, 2001.

  Fogelman, Peggy and Peter Fusco with Marietta Cambareri. Italian and Spanish Sculpture: Catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2002. p. 86. www.getty.edu

  Pegazzano, Donatella. Il Giasone di Palazzo Zanchini: Pietro Francavilla al Museo del Bargello. Firenze: Giunti, 2002.

  Acidini Luchinat, Cristina, Art Institute of Chicago, and Detroit Institute of Arts. The Medici, Michelangelo, & the Art of Late Renaissance Florence. New Haven: Yale University Press in association with the Detroit Institute of Arts, 2002. no. 71.

  Chiarini, Marco, Alan Phipps Darr, Cristina Giannini, Art Institute of Chicago, and Detroit Institute of Arts. L’ombra Del Genio: Michelangelo E L’arte a Firenze 1537-1631. Milano: Skira, 2002.

  Boström, Antonia. The Encylopedia of Sculpture. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004.

  Leithe-Jasper, Manfred, Patricia Wengraf, and Frick Collection. European Bronzes from the Quentin Collection: An Exhibition at the Frick Collection, New York, September 28, 2004 to January 2, 2005. New York: M.T. Train/Scala, 2004.

  Redondo Cantera, María José (ed.). El modelo italiano en las artes plásticas de la Península Ibérica durante el Renacimiento. Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, Secretariado de Publicaciones e Intercambio Editorial, 2004.

  Gasparotto, Davide. Giambologna (Grandi Scultori). Rome: Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso, 2005.

  Pegazzano, Donatella. Giambologna. Firenze: Giunti, 2006.

  Seipel, Wilfried and Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. Giambologna: Triumph Des Körpers. Wien, Milano: Kunsthistorisches Museum; Skira, 2006. pp. 188–192, no. 1.

  Cole, Michael W. Ambitious Form: Giambologna, Ammanati, and Danti in Florence. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press, 2011. pp. 170–174, fig. 5.5.

  Acidini Luchinat, Cristina et al. The Cinquecento in Florence : “Modern Manner” and Counter-Reformation. Edited by Carlo Falciani and Antonio Natali. Translated by Catherine Bolton. Firenze: Mandragora, 2017. pp. 284–5.

  Korkow, Cory. "Giambologna Joins the Collection: The Rare and Renowned Fata Morgana.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 65, no. 3 (2025): 26-27. Reproduced: p. 27; Mentioned: p. 26 archive.org
• Exhibition History
  The Cinquecento in Florence: Modern Manner and Counter-Reformation, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy (September 22, 2017–January 21, 2018).

  Giambologna: Triumph des Körpers, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria (June 27–September 7, 2006).

  L'ombra del genio: Michelagelo e l'arte a Firenze, 1537 - 1631, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence (June 6 - September 29, 2002), The Medici, Michelangelo, and the Art of Late Renaissance Florence, Art Institute of Chicago (November 9, 2002–February 2, 2003), & Institute of Arts, Detroit (March 16 - June 8, 2003).

  Magnificenza alla corte dei Medici: Arte a Firenze alla fine del Cinquecento, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy (September 24, 1997–January 6, 1998).
• Cite this Page
  {{cite web|title=Fata Morgana|url=false|author=Giambologna|year=c. 1572|access-date=05 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}