Rare, late 18th or early 19th century patinated bronze of Mars or the ''Executioner'' after Massimiliano Soldani Benzi (1656-1740). The bronze depicts a nude man with a sword holding a severed head believed to be John the Baptist. Based on the original bronze of Mars by Giambologna, his Florentine successors copied and adapted this well-known work, Benzi added the severed head creating a new original striking sculpture. Wonderful dark patination with areas of verdigris the figure stands on an integral canted rectangular base. The sword is a later replacement. Probably early 19th century but similar bronzes have been sold at auction catalogued as 18th and 19th century. Rare piece of early Grand Tour. Italy, probably Florence, circa 1800.Based in London, we are dealers in fine decorative antiques from the 18th and 19th centuries. We specialise in this era of enlightenment, neoclassicism and the Grand Tour, with its far reaching influence on style and taste in Britain, Continental...