Joseph de Levis applied his distinctive signature (between 1577 and 1605) to a whole range of fantastic, Mannerist, bronze artifacts, some 45 in all. They range from large church bells-some still in situ-and miniature table bells, to mortars, inkstands, perfume burners, door knockers, firedogs, statuettes, and even a portrait-bust. Joseph's sons and nephews continued the family business into the seventeenth century, signing a similar range of artifacts in an early Baroque style. This book provides a unique cross-section of the production of a hardworking and resilient renaissance foundry. Frequently inscriptions and coats-of-arms specify his wide ranging client le, from civic and church authorities, to guilds and confraternities (all-important in society at the time), nobility, merchants, and connoisseur-collectors. Bronzes by the De Levis dynasty are now dispersed among museums in Europe, the USA and Israel, and in Old Master collections. A notable collector being the late Robert H. Smith, whose foundation purchased in 2002 the eye-catching Ewer from the Salomon de Rothschild Foundation in Paris for 276,000. This well illustrated catalogue raisonn is important to both art history and from the perspective of the Jewish Diaspora in Renaissance Italy.
